The Dezen Discovery Old Version
by Akamuna
Summary: Follow the adventures of Sayunae, an aspiring young pokemon trainer on the road to victory in the new region Dezen, or is it the road to disaster.
1. Chapter 1

The Dezen Discovery

By LoneGrowlithe

Chapter one

Kerdan, a bustling metropolis located near the lowermost edge of Dezen, a large region found to the far north of Kanto, the region, as a whole, home to usually frigid and cold weather. Kerdan was commonly known to be a place of business, from law firms to vast scientific facilities located somewhere within the maze of the enormous city, even the occasional breeding centre was somewhere in the fold. Skyscrapers towered over everything so that even form the air, the city itself speared as a maze, one in which a person could be easily lost. But I couldn't be bothered with any of that right now.

Casting a furtive glace behind me as a dashed down a narrow alleyway, I spotted David, a well built fifteen year old boy with deep auburn hair gracing his head and short bangs shading his striking green eyes, a look of deep concentration mixed with anger sprawled across his face. And he was practically right behind me. I blanched when I realized that he was gaining more ground on me too. I turned my head back forwards, just in time to run into a cluster of trashcans and trip over them, sending a small group of shabby looking Rattata and a rather large yet equally shabby Raticate scurrying away to who knew where.

"Hah, bad luck trashcan," David laughed at me as he dashed past and onto the street, disappearing from view.

"I'll catch up," I bellowed after him as I disentangled myself from the rubbish bins, causing quite a racket as I did so.

Giving one of the bins a savage kick, I gave chase to David, the Rattata and Raticate twittering angrily after me. I burst onto the street, knocking over a few people as I skidded to a stop and looked down both sides of the street, and spotted David far ahead of me when I looked right. Hurriedly I dashed after him, weaving around people, and sometimes having to push them roughly out of my way. I soon caught up to the burly boy, but he maintained a steady lead, and I was unable to pass him by. Looking ahead of David, I noticed that sticking out from the doorway of a shop was a long cream tail, ended with four green bulbs.

I glanced at David, and was glad to find he hadn't noticed it yet, and was still running at full speed. He caught me looking at him, and smirked, before his face turned to surprise as he tripped over the tail of a smug looking Breloom standing just inside the doorway of a shop owned by the father of a friend of mine. Flashing Breloom a thankful grin, I ran past as David was tripped up again as Breloom made to walk back inside, his gait making his tail swish from side to side and collide with David's legs.

Taking this turn of events to my advantage, I raced through a couple more people and skidded into the next street and continued running. After a few minutes of running, I reached the city limits, and entered the suburban area of the prospering city. Chancing a glance behind me, I saw David a fair way away, but swiftly catching up. I turned my head forwards again, thankfully not being about to run into any obstacles and turned down another street.

A couple more turns landed me on a street where an old time friend of mine was waiting in his front yard. Jake, a boy with short cropped honey colored hair and bright cheerful blue yes, was standing in his front yard, with a lean, well exercised Vaporeon sitting beside him. Jake was a trainer, and it was he who had owned the Breloom in the shop, which was owned by his dad. Although he was only a trainer of six months, having left home with a Spinirak his parents had given him for his birthday, he was pretty strong with a well rounded team.

I made a couple of motions to Jake with my hands, indicating to him that I was being followed. Jake grinned ecstatically, knowing what to do to slow David down, and gave Vaporeon a pat on the head. Suddenly, as soon as he began to pat her, she began to laugh maniacally and uncontrollably. That thing needed psychiatric help, was all I concluded as I ran past them, giving the psychotic Vaporeon a weird look. A short while later, I heard loud yells erupt from behind me and, unable to resist, I turned my head back and started laughing when I saw David standing in the middle of the street, covering his face with his arms as Vaporeon danced around him firing off water guns in his face.

Vaporeon then let loose a rather large jet of water into David which blasted him halfway across the street and into some bushes that made up someone's fence which caused me to start laughing harder and nearly trip over. Still laughing hard, and feeling quite out of breath, I turned down a street which would take me closer to home. Not long later, I was bounding up the front steps of the large three story home I shared with my 15 odd foster siblings, of which David was one, and my foster parents Jacob and Jessica.

I was a foster child, something which would have irked some people, but not me, I loved it. I always though of it as having one big happily family, a competitive family at times, with there being so many kids around, but a family all the same. David and myself were some of the more competitive of the family, especially about certain things, such as today, for Jacob, as he done every year, had acquired five competition forms for a competition that was run once annually.

The competition was a highly known one through out all regions, held roughly at the same time each year, and thousands of kids from all regions around the world entered. The qualifications were simple, fill in the competition form, and write an essay on the given topic. The prize: the chance to become a full fledged Pokemon trainer, licensed by the league for free, a prize pack full of journeying essentials, and a properly trained starting Pokemon. So many kids yearned to win this contest, and thousands signed up, yet of all the thousands, only twelve winners were to be chosen.

That was why David and I had been racing each other home, to see who would get home first, because in our case, if you wanted one of the five forms Jacob had gotten, it was a first home first serve basis, so all of us kids had to compete with each other to get home before everyone else. We all knew that our chances of winning the competition were slim, but we still entered with hopes that maybe we would win.

Flinging open the front door to the house, It hit the wall and I lets its own momentum shut it as I dashed inside and made to bolt into the kitchen, only to be unceremoniously jerked backwards to the floor with a loud yelp of pain as I noticed that the door had slammed closed on the end of my trailing braid.

"Owwwww," I moaned in pain as I got to my feet and opened the door, withdrawing the end of my bright cobalt blue braid, before slamming the door shut angrily and rubbing my sore scalp, "Stupid damn door."

I stalked into the kitchen and grudgingly sat down at the kitchen table grumbling to myself, setting my schoolbag down beside my seat, before looking to Jacob who had watched me as I came in. Jacob was a middle aged man, with short black hair flecked numerously with grey and calm brown eyes which were pooled with kindness. He was looking at me with an amused smile on his face.

"So," he started as I looked at him, "was that you I heard yell."

"Stupid door slammed on my braid," I grumbled to him as I slouched in my chair, crossing my arms.

"Well, hopefully that'll teach you how to open and close doors properly then," Jacob smiled at me knowingly.

"Riight," I drawled at him jokingly, "and maybe Spoinks will fly."

"Well, seeing as you first to arrive," Jacob laughed changing the subject, as I looked around the near empty kitchen in feigned surprise.

"Well, imagine that," I whistled to myself innocently.

"I expect you have an idea about what's happened to the others and why no one else has shown up yet," Jacob eyes me warily.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I laughed lightly as I avoided meeting his eyes.

"Right," Jacob scoffed lightly before pushing a piece of paper towards me, "your competition form."

"Ooooh, thank you," I squealed as I snatched it up gleefully.

I skimmed through it, my eyes coming to rest on the essay topic.

"Ah, the essay topic for this year is Pokemon of the tropics," I said aloud, mostly to myself before diving into my bag for pens and paper.

Yanking one of my favorite pens and one of my least used school books out of my bag, I swiftly filled in the competition form before turning my full attention to writing the essay. I'd barely started writing when I heard the door slam open, and then slam close with a heavy bang as a gangly limbed eleven year old with a shock of red hair came dashing through the kitchen archway, nearly colliding with one of the many chairs that surrounding the long oak table.

"AM I LATE? AM I LATE," he yelled fervently at the top of his lungs, not watching where he was going and tripping over a pokedoll carelessly tossed on the floor, sending him sprawling onto the blue tiles that made up the kitchens floor.

"Michael," Jacob was by his side almost immediately, worry in his voice, "You're not hurt are you?"

"I'm fine," Michael dusted himself off as Jacob helped him to his feet, "I'm not late, am I?" he then asked hopefully.

"No, actually, your right on time Michael Microphone," I told him as I set my pen down on the table and his face lighted up with delight, "So why not pull up a chair you little runt."

"I'm not a runt," Michael growled as he took a seat across the table from me, "and I'm not little."

"Doesn't seem that way to me," I teased him.

"Shut-up," Michael barked back at me.

"No, I don't think I will," I snickered as I poked my tongue at him.

"Both of you cut it out," Jacob scolded us before handing Michael his own competition form, "Now, maybe you should both get to work, remember, I'm posting these tonight."

"Gotcha," I mock saluted Jacob before picking up my pen and putting it once again to my paper and continuing to write my, as of the moment, short essay.

"Uh, Jacob," I heard Michael pipe up after a few minutes.

"Yes Michael," Jacob replied.

"I can't do the essay," Michael sighed dejectedly.

"Say what?" I butted in, pausing in my own work once more, "Why not?"

"I don't know much about Pokemon you find in tropical places, I haven't started that at school yet," Michael looked at me, his blue eyes full of sadness, "The only one I actually know of is Tropius."

"I have an idea," I said suddenly after a minute of thought, and I turned to Jacob, "I could lend Michael one of my texts books on Pokemon and where to find them, it would help him out a lot and then he would be able to finish the essay."

Jacob thought about it and looked between both Michael and myself before sighing in defeat, a smile on his face, "Alright, you can lend him your text book, but only for this one time," Jacob told us sternly.

"Yes!" Michael yelled triumphantly and started bouncing about in his seat, "Thanks Jacob."

I grinned at Michael's actions as I withdrew a rather thick textbook from my bag and slid it across the table towards him. He snatched it up eagerly and flipped it open at a random page and began to read, every so often casting me thankful smiles.

Smiling to myself, I began once again to write my essay, this time not letting anything distract me, not even the arrivals of the rest of the occupants of the house, although, I did let myself glance up a little bit as David arrived home soaking wet and grumbling. He looked into the kitchen and noticed that already five people had come in and were filling in the form and writing their essays, and stalked away, and I heard a distant slam a few minutes later.

It was an hour or two later before I finally deemed my essay to have at least a reasonable chance of getting noticed or winning before I neatly sealed it in an envelope, handing it over to Jacob and collecting up my stuff and retrieving my textbook from Michael, who was putting the finishing touches on his own essay, before going up to the room I shared with one of my many sisters.

Once I opened the door however, I was met with a wooly assailant flying into my face.

"Yeesh Larana, waging war are we," I grinned at my roommate as I looked into the very messy room, holding a red and white jumper in my hands.

Larana jumped up in surprise from where she had been under the desk, obviously looking for something, and bumped her head on the top of the desk. Larana was a faired skin girl with sleek black hair that reached just below her shoulder blades. Startled aqua eyes looked at me before narrowing. Larana was of reasonable height for her age of nearly fourteen, maybe just a bit taller.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror; I was also fourteen but a bit under the average height. I had tanned skin, but I burned easily. My hair was of two tones, my real hair color was a bright cobalt blue, but I kept dying my bangs a dark blue so that I was different from the other cobalt haired girls and guys at school. My eyes were violet, contrasting fairly well with my hair.

Looking back at Larana, I noticed she was glaring at me whilst rubbing the top of her head.

"You do know that the death glare doesn't work," I pointed out, leaning against the door frame.

"Don't scare me like that," Larana hissed out at me between clenched teeth.

"Why not, its fun," I shrugged with a grin on my face before I waved my hand around the room as I spoke again, "So, what's with the battle field?"

The room itself looked like something akin to a Dragonairs twister attack had ripped through it, stuff was everywhere, clothes on beds, paper scattered about the floor, pokedolls hanging haphazardly off beds and shelves.

"Uh, I lost my locket, I was trying to find it," Larana looked around at what should have been called a room, "Legends, what a mess."

"Well don't look at me, it wasn't my fault," I defended myself, putting my hands up in front of me.

"But Jessica might not think so," Larana pointed out.

"I get your point," I put my finger to my chin thoughtfully, "Guess it's time to clean up then."

"I guess so," Larana sighed disdainfully.

"I'll take the right side of the room," I told her, "You take the left."

"Yes captain," Larana saluted playfully before moving to clean up.

I moved towards the right side of the room taking the jersey with me and picking up a few more clothes items before dumping them in a pile in the middle of the room.

"Hey 'Rana," I called to my sister, "just put all the clothes here for now, we'll sort them out later."

"Will do," Larana's muffled voice came from somewhere under the bed.

Laughing silently to myself, I continued with my side of the room, occasionally picking up an article of clothing and tossing it onto the ever growing pile. This was going to take ages, I grumbled inwardly as I continued to do one of my most hated chores.

The end

Eh-heh, well the first re-rewritten chapter of The Dezen Discovery :D honestly, I'm loving this version much much more than any of the others. Next chapter could be a while coming, but keep your eyes peeled.

The new Pokemon mentioned in this chapter are © by me. Do not use them without permission.

Pokemon is © by Nintendo.


	2. Chapter 2

The Dezen Discovery

By LoneGrowlithe

Chapter Two

Boredom, complete and utter boredom, was all I could understand as I sat in my math class, idly drawing in my book as the teacher, Mr. Haskin droned on and on about stuff we had already learnt in previous years. It had already been two weeks since Jacob had poster my competition entry to the league, and I knew it would take the Pokemon professor's weeks to get through all of the entries, and everyday when I got home, I flipped through the mail to see if I had gotten a reply back or not, only to come up empty.

I looked over to where Larana was sitting and watched as she yawned due to boredom, looking dreamily out the window. I turned my attention back to the picture I was drawing of my favorite Pokemon, Ninetales. It looked cartoony, yet still a bit realistic, but I frowned at the head, it was too small, and I always did that with all my drawings, either the head was too small or the head was too big, and it annoyed me because I usually ended up having to start over again, but as they say, practice makes perfect.

But deciding that this picture was one of the best I could come up with at the moment, I reached into my pencil case for a creamy soft yellow pencil and began to color it in. But this didn't continue for long, because suddenly the pencil was snatched from my grasp by a very irate Mr. Haskin.

"I would prefer it, Sayunae, if you paid more attention to your schoolwork and not to your artwork," he chided as he handed me back my pencil, "Now turn to page 254 in your textbook and do the work I've set out on the board."

"Yes sir," I sheepishly took the pencil from him, blushing a bit as everyone in the class snickered at my embarrassment.

I slid the paper with the half colored Ninetales into the back of my book and opened my text book to the appropriate page and began on the questions which were listed on the board. After doing the boring math questions for twenty minutes I was relieved to finally hear the bell, which heralded the end of math, and also the end of the school day and the week. Gratefully I packed up my stuff, putting it all into my bag, and literally ran out of the room, and met up with Larana in the hall.

"So what are we gonna do now birthday girl," I grinned at Larana as we walked out of the front door of the school.

"Sayunae," moaned Larana, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't yell it out for the whole school to hear."

"I don't have to, remember, Michael did that this morning when he snuck into the office and announced it over the loud speaker," I grinned at her.

"I was trying to forget about that," Larana groaned as a blush crept over her face.

"Michael did get a week worth of detention however," I said, "so it's not like he's getting off scott free."

"I know," Larana said, a smile creeping onto her face as she brushed a stray strand of raven hair from her face, "Why don't we head to the battle park for a while, watch some of the Pokemon battles."

"Sure, maybe we might see some good battles, and maybe some rare Pokemon," I replied to her as we left the school grounds and walked up the street towards the battle park.

The battle park was essentially a large park set away from main buildings and businesses yet close to once of the three Pokemon Centers found in town. The park was set aside strictly as a place for trainers living in, or visiting the city to battle with other trainers, and the occasional wild Pokemon to be found in the park. There were numerous battle fields set out for trainers, and grandstands about them for people to watch.

We reached the Battle Park pretty soon, seeing as it was only up the street from our school, along with other students from the school who had pretty much the same idea. We moved over to the nearest battle field and took a seat on the topmost bench of the grandstand that flanked it, waiting for a battle to start. To pass the time until a battle did start, I reached into my bag and pulled out my math book, retrieving my still half finished Ninetales picture from it and started coloring it in again.

"Sayunae, a battles starting," Larana prodded me after a minute of two.

"Really," I drew my attention away form my picture and cast it down on the battlefield.

Sure enough two trainers were taking their place at either end of the field. They had probably already discussed the terms of battle beforehand. I realized that I recognized the girl trainer as being a girl from our school, known for her being the schools champion trainer, having beaten all of the other trainers in school. If I remembered correctly, her name was Tara-Jane, or TJ as everyone called her.

TJ had red hair fashioned in wavy lines down her back, with determined features set into her rounded face and jade eyes concentrated on the battle. Her hair was decorated with a long jade clip, with minimized pokeballs clipped onto it. She was still in school because she had returned to finish her education before setting out again to continue her Pokemon training. She had taken place on the challengers' side of the field, standing in the trainers' box.

Her opponent was a boy with blonde haired spiked up about his head, from what I could see of him, he was pretty determined to win the battle, a pokeball already maximized in his hand. I didn't recognize him, so I figured he must be either from out of town, or went to another school; he did only look to be about thirteen. Almost expertly, the boy swung his arm back and lobbed the pokeball onto the field, a certain magnet mechanism withdrawing the metal pokeball back to his hand.

The Pokemon that appeared from the ball was a large white one that appeared to be about the same size of the boy, albeit a bit smaller. It stood firmly on two legs, its arms in front of it ready to fight, its hands ending in two sharp claws ready to slash away. It had a reasonable sized head, with a fairly large mouth which was filled with same rather pointed teeth. A tuft of bright red hair started at the brows of its eyes and fluffed upwards, and its hands contained red paw pads. The rest of it was a stark white, except for two red stripes along its back.

"Wow, a Vigoroth, don't see too many of them around here," I commented to Larana.

"The guy must be from Hoenn then, that's where they're most common," Larana replied.

"Probably, but he could be from somewhere else you know," I told her, "I wonder what Pokemon TJ will choose."

We watched as TJ eyed up the competition, before reaching up and pulling one of the six pokeballs of her hair clip, and maximized it, before, with a fancy spin she threw it onto the field. In the trademark flash of white light, her Pokemon appeared. TJ's Pokemon was a small red lizard like creature, with fluffy curls upon its head. It could have been no bigger that her knee, and blurted a small wispy frame from its yellow beak. A large patch of yellow fuzz could be seen on its stomach and a small band of black fur going around its neck.

"Wow, a Magby, I didn't know she had one of them," Larana exclaimed when she saw it.

"Well, it looks like this is going to be a hot battle," I joked badly, causing Larana to glare at me.

"Just watch the battle," she huffed at me and we turned our attention towards the battle.

It was a fierce battle; with the small fire type pitted up against the energetic normal type twice its size. We didn't pay attention to the commands shouted, preferring to guess the attacks instead. It was a few breathtaking minutes before the battle was over, and the much smaller Magby stood proudly on its opponent's stomach, having just delivered the winning head butt attack, and was now dancing happily.

The people who had gathered to watch the battle cheered at TJ's Victory, as a majority of the spectators were kids from school who had come to enjoy watching battles that took place or compete in their own. The two trainers met each other in the middle of the field as they collected their Pokemon and the boy handed TJ the amount of money they had agreed the winner would receive before heading their different ways, probably to find new people to battle or to heal their Pokemon.

Larana and I spent the rest of the day at the battle park, watching numerous battles that our particular battlefield had, and during the intervals between them I finished my Ninetales picture and began on one of a Dragonite. But after a rather interesting battle between a pair of Quagsire, Larana voiced that she wanted to go home.

"Sure, why not," I replied to her as I packed up my stuff and glanced at my watch, grinning at the time, "It's getting late anyway."

We collected up our bags and stepped off the grandstand, swiftly heading towards the gate and turning towards home. We walked for about twenty minutes before we reached the street before our house, then I decided to put my plan into action.

"Race you Home," I yelled loudly in Larana's ear and gave her a slight push as I ran past, dashing for home.

"Hey," I heard Larana yell disdainfully from behind me and I chanced a small glance back to see that she was, thankfully, following me.

I quickly made my way down our street and up the steps to home, flinging open the front door and dashing inside and down the hall a bit before turning left into the living room, leaving the door wide open behind me. Once in the living room, which was pitch black like the rest of the house, I ducked behind a barely visible couch an waited for Larana to show.

The Surprise party for Larana had been weeks in the making, and the task had fallen to me to keep my friend distracted after school so that our friends and family could set up the party, but thankfully going to the battle park had done that well enough. I heard Larana's feet coming up the steps, and heard her voice her concerns about the open front door and the pitch black hallway. Hearing the front door close, I prepped myself to be ready to leap up as she stepped into the living room.

Seconds later, Larana flicked the light switch.

"SURPRISE!" everyone in the room yelled as they leapt form they're hiding places, giving Larana quite a fright.

"You guys," she shrieked as we all laughed at her bewildered expression, but a smile soon crept over her face, "Your all plain evil, you know I hate surprises."

"We know that, so it was just an opportunity we couldn't resist," laughed Gregory, a twelve year old with black hair, amber eyes hidden behind glasses and a high intellect thanks to all the books he read.

Soon the party was in full swing, with more than just one person acting completely stupid and making everyone laugh. Soon enough though, I was completely hyped up on sugar and was included in that number myself, acting completely bonkers and yelling at the top of my lungs about random things I saw, causing everyone to laugh. That was just one of the few problems I had, I tended to get hyper, very easily, and when I got hyper, I done things I never usually did.

Despite me embarrassing myself there was also the usual round of passing presents form both friends and family. I myself had gotten her two books, one on normal Pokemon, and the other on water, two of her more favorite types of Pokemon. Many more presets followed but the most interesting one was the package from Tommy, Larana's actual brother.

Tommy was a lot like Larana, both had been taken in by Jessica and Jacob at the same time, seeing the sense to keep them together because they were siblings; he had the same raven black hair, although he always kept his in short tresses, and his eyes were amber instead of Larana's startling aqua. He also happened to be a Pokemon trainer, having won the same yearly contest I so fervently hoped to place in two years previously. He'd started his journey in Kanto, his starter Pokemon being a Poochyena he had named Keigan. He'd traveled around Kanto for about two years, training his Pokemon and collecting badges, and had only competed in the Kanto league just last year, but sadly not making it very far.

The last we had heard from him, he had been in Hoenn training his Pokemon and collecting new ones, before he decided to go and challenge the Kanto league again. Everyone expected Tommy's present to be something exciting or something expensive, but looking at the small box wrapped in blue wrapping paper with a silver ribbon tied around it, it didn't seem so. Everyone waited patiently as Larana opened the gift from her brother and pulled a small piece of folded paper from the box.

"Dear Larana," She read the note aloud to everyone so they all knew what was in it, "Happy fourteenth birthday, I do hope you have fun just getting a little bit older. Enclosed in this box you will find your gift, I do hope you like it. Have fun walking. Tommy," Larana finished reading and looked at the note skeptically, "Have fun walking', what the hell is that meant to mean."

"I dunno, maybe you should see what else he sent," suggested Madison, a small girl with a big imagination.

Larana reached into the box and pulled out a heap of bubble wrap and tossed it onto the growing pile of wrapping paper and what not on the floor next to her feet. Reaching into the box again, she withdrew a small flat device in a nice creamy white color which Gregory immediately identified as a

"Pokedex, he sent you a pokedex, what for," Gregory voice in confusion and everyone began to mutter.

The mutters began more frequent when Larana next pulled out an equally creamy white pokenav, and I had a feeling there could be more to come. Next Larana, with a chalk white face, pulled out a small flat piece of card hat was completely laminated, she held it in front of her for a few moments, staring, possibly ready it over, before setting it on her lap with the pokedex and pokenav and reaching once again into the box, but this time, to everyone's astonishment, puling out a maximized red and white sphere we all instantly recognized as a pokeball.

"A pokeball," Michael exclaimed loudly, "What's in it Larana, what's in it?"

"I don't know," Larana said quietly, "But I think I understand his note now."

"Why, how do you understand his note, I didn't even get that 'have fun walking' part," said Gregory.

"Have fun walking," Larana repeated, rolling the pokeball around gently in her hands, "It means, have fun walking around the region training Pokemon, he paid for my trainers license, I'm now a Pokemon trainer," Larana announced, a smile lighting up her face.

Everyone was stupefied for a moment, even me before I decided to break the silence.

"Now that is just abso-freaking-lutely FANTASTIC," I yelled and jumped up from my seat, and pulled Larana into a hug, "Now this is some kind of birthday, huh?"

"You can say that again," Larana smiled, the pokeball still clenched in one hand as everyone came up to congratulate her.

"But one thing," asked Holly, another girl, but the youngest, being only seven in age, "What Pokemon do you have?"

"Maybe we should find out," Said Larana and she looked at the pokeball in her hand, before tossing it lightly onto the couch, "Pokemon, go."

The two halves of the ball exploded apart and in the rush of bright light coming from the pokeball a small Pokemon appeared. It was a feline, and appeared to be around the same size as an Eevee, and greatly resembled one. The feline body was a dusky brown, a shade lighter that that of an Eevee, with a creamy white ruff bushing about its neck. Flicking triangle ears ended in creamy tufts, and identical creamy ruffs about each of its feet fluttered a bit as it flew through the small expanse of air between it and the couch. A long slinky tail trailed behind it, ending in another creamy tuft.

I immediately recognized it as one of Dezens native Pokemon, known as Kitana by name. It was commonly referred to as Eevee's feline cousin, sharing the same unstable DNA strand and the potential to evolve into many different types of Pokemon. The Kitana landed deftly one the couch, and looked around at everyone with chocolate eyes before bounding off the couch and sniffing at everyone and everything.

"Awww, it's so cute," squealed Holly before most of the girls and younger kids began crooning and fawning over it.

"I wonder where he got it from," Pondered Larana as she looked at her new Pokemon in surprise, "He couldn't have caught it wild, you need a special permit to do that, and as far as I know, there aren't many Kitana in Hoenn or Kanto."

"Let's check in the box to see if there's anything else," I suggested to her as I picked up the box.

We both looked through the leftover bubble wrap and whatever else in the box before we found some papers neatly folded in the bottom. We read the over and soon found out that these were the actual certificates of purchase for the Pokemon and information on it.

"According to this, it's a she," said Larana, "And she was purchased from a breeding centre in the Zero city area through correspondence."

"Tommy's smart, I'll give him that," I whistled as I read over the details, "This certificate even lists her current known attacks."

"Hmm, Tackle, Scratch, Growl and sand-attack, I guess they're alright," said Larana, and her eyes flitted down to the price, "one thousand six hundred dollars," she spoke incredulously, her eyes going wide, "Tommy spent that much on a Pokemon for me."

"Whoa," I whistled again, this time in appreciation, "I think that just goes to show that he loves you."

"But that much, for a single Pokemon," Larana said, looking at me with her still wide eyes.

"As you said, you can't catch Kitana from the wild without a permit, and they happen to be rare anyways, so what could you expect?" I said, voicing the truth.

"I guess so," Larana said, looking over to her new cat Pokemon who was curiously inspecting all the people around her.

"Think you'll name her," I asked curiously, looking to Larana for an answer.

"I dunno, maybe I should, it would set her apart, and make it easier for me to bond with her if a give her a name," said Larana, the papers in her hand ruffling together as she placed them back in the box with the pokedex, pokenav, and what I now recognized to be a trainer card, "I hear Pokemon like you a bit more if you grace them with a name instead of just calling them by their species name."

"Up to you," I shrugged as Larana closed the box and withdrew Kitana's pokeball from her pocket, where she had placed it while we searched the box for clues.

"Kitana," Larana eventually called out and the small cat came bounding over to her and leapt in her arms happily, recognizing her easily as her trainer by the pokeball she held, "No, not Kitana, your now Kida, got that, Kida."

"Taaaana," she mewed happily, rubbing her check up against Larana's.

"I think Kida likes her new name," mentioned Jessica, our foster mother with nice cherry hair and light crystal eyes full of as much kindness and caring as Jacobs, with a smile.

"Yeah, that's it, your Kida, my first Pokemon partner," Larana whispered so low I barely heard her as she hugged the kitten Pokemon to her chest.

TBC

Yes, finally, the second chapter is finished, I like this chappy too, I realized that in the old versions of my story I never wrote about how Larana got her first Pokemon, so I did in this version.

The new Pokemon mentioned in this chapter are © by me. Do not use them without permission.

Pokemon is © by Nintendo.


	3. Chapter 3

The Dezen Discovery

By LoneGrowlithe

Chapter Three

"Get off the cupboard you stupid cat," I yelled up at the snickering Pokemon standing gleefully on the top of the wooden cupboard, and away from me, "Of all times for Larana to stay after school."

I looked again at the shredded bottoms of the curtains and glared once again at the cat. Kida just snickered at me and promptly sat down, and began to clean the puffs of fur about her feet, taunting me most likely.

"You're going to such trouble if Jessica finds out about this," I commented to the cat, "She'd kill you."

Kida just looked at me with boredom and continued grooming. I sighed; in the four weeks that Larana had owned the young kitten, the whole household had discovered that she was a mischievous and naughty creature. Clawing on the curtains and breaking lamps were some of her more daring escapades, but it included more in there somewhere.

So, because of her property damaging curiosity, or however Jacob had said it, she was confined to the room me and Larana shared whenever she was out of her pokeball. And considering that Larana kept her out of the pokeball nearly all the time, it meant that she was free to wreak havoc completely on the room.

Giving Kida one more glare, I left the room, closing the door behind me so she wouldn't escape into the hall and break something. Leaping down the stairs two at a time, I decided to leave the house and go do something creative. Writing a quick note to Jessica and Jacob so they knew where I had gone, I gathered up my jacket and left.

Idly wandering into town, I went to a common hangout for teens, besides the battle park. It was a large community centre building that rose up about four stories; it offered a wide variety of activities ranging from basketball games to classes on Pokemon training if you were getting ready to leave on your first journey. Larana had been attending the classes for the past week; sometimes I went with her, to see what it was like.

Once I entered the building, which, on the outside was painted a bland white and blue, I made my way up the stairs to the games room, which was where; basically, you played board games and that. Not long after I entered, I was involved in a game of monopoly with some other kids on the giant monopoly board set into the floor. I was in the middle of moving my piece when I noticed a friend of mine from school walk in the door.

His name was Joseph, he had short blond hair and blue eyes, was a bit of a laid back type of guy, preferring, as his usual standard of clothes, a jersey and baggy pants. I also happened to notice that he had a crestfallen expression on his face, as though someone had let him down about something, or broken a promise. Turning to the other kids who were playing the game, I handed my spot over to someone who wanted to play before heading over to him.

"Hey Joe," I greeted him with a light punch on the shoulder as I sat next to him on a couch, "What's up."

"Nuthin'," he replied quietly.

"There's somethin', now what is it," I pressed the subject, as I was want to do to try and cheer my friends up.

"I got a reply back from the competition officials," Joseph looked at me, I knew he had entered the contest too, trying like I was to get a trainers license for free, "No luck, I didn't make it."

"Aww man," I said, "bad luck then, but if you got yours, that means I'll be getting my reply back soon to."

"Probably," Joseph agreed with me as we settled to watch the monopoly game.

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The next day at school, I was far away from my studies, my mind had long since drifted to the fact that replies form the competition officials were popping up all over the place. In fact, most of my Pokemon Histories studies class wasn't paying attention at all, and the teacher knew it, so he left us well alone, knowing there was no chance he'd be able to get us to do work.

It was a welcome sound when the bell blared and school ended. Eagerly I snatched up my bag and blazed my way out of the school and towards home, hoping that the mail had been delivered today and that my own reply from the competition was there. Once I was up the steps and into the house, careful not to slam the door on the end of my bright cobalt braid, I made my way swiftly to the kitchen and picked up the pile of mail and pawed my way through it like a Linoone, but like many times in the past few weeks, my hands came up empty.

Sighing to myself, I left the kitchen and started on my way upstairs, when I cough from behind me made me turn around to see who it was. Jacob was standing behind me, having just come out of the living room, in his hands were three envelopes, all colored the same, a powdery sort of red, and close to maroon yet it wasn't.

"Good afternoon Sayunae," He spoke to me calmly.

"Are they…." I trailed off, looking at the envelopes in Jacobs hand suspiciously.

"Yes, they are," Jacob replied, smiling at me before handing me one of the envelopes through the spaces between the guard rails.

"Thank you Jacob," I replied quietly, taking the envelope, before suddenly dashing up the stairs.

"Your welcome Sayunae," he called after me, then added, "And don't let that cat out."

I reached my room and opened the door, swiftly jumping in and closing it behind me just as fast, and just in time as a fuzzy brown blur dashed out from under Larana's bed and headed for the door, only to collide with it painfully.

"Taaanaaa," Kida mewed at me pathetically.

"There is no way I'm letting you out, so stop meowing at me," I told her as I dropped my bag beside my bed and flopped onto it, lying on my stomach, holding the envelope tentatively.

As I looked at the envelope, unsure of whether I should open it or not, Kida jumped up onto the bed and curled up next to me for a snooze. Giving Kida a couple of strokes along her back, I carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the enclosed letter, and to me, it didn't really look as though I'd won anything, but I read it out loud to myself anyway.

"Miss Sayunae Waverson,

We are pleased to inform you that due to your marvelous essay, you have placed fourth in the Pokemon trainers contest. Enclosed in this envelope you'll find a bus ticket to Judan village, the starting point for this year's competition. Also enclosed are a guidebook and your official trainer's card.

The leading officials for this years contest are Professor Oak of Kanto, Professor Elm of Jhoto and Professor Bramble of Dezen.

The available pokemon for choice are:

Kanto: Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Pidgey

Jhoto: Chickorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, and Pichu

Dezen: Asydri, Cascardron, Leafius, and Zaep

Your bus will leave from Kerdan on the twelve of the month of Kyogre, we hope you will be present at the ceremony which is held on the fifteenth of the month of Kyogre.

Aaron Jenson

Head of trainer regulations Jhoto," I finished reading and just looked at the letter in shock.

A few minutes later, I was still looking at the letter in shock, and only vaguely registered the fact that someone had entered the room. I was suddenly jerked out of my reverie by a hand waving in front of my face.

"Hey, you looked like your zoning out a bit there," Larana commented to me as she picked up Kida from beside me, "Something wrong."

"Yeah," I gulped as I handed her the letter with a shaky hand, "Please tell me I read that right."

Larana looked at me skeptically before taking the paper and reading it over silently, and looking at it in shock much the same as I did before she handed it back to me.

"If you're referring to the fact that you won, I think you did read it properly," Larana said to me, looking and sounding breathless.

"You do know what this means then," I spoke softly.

We looks at each other for a few moments, before suddenly jumping on the bed screaming with each other happily, generally causing a ruckus as the letter fell discarded to the floor along with the envelope as it flew off the bed as we bounced. Our racket soon attracted the attention of the other residents of the household who were currently at home, and a disgruntled Jacob opened the door to our room, with half the house behind him.

"Just what, may I ask, is going on here," He demanded and we came to a sudden halt in our jumps and I fell backwards off the bed to land ungraciously on the floor causing everyone who watched to burst out laughing.

"Would you believe us if we said nothing," Larana smiled mareepishly.

"I think you know the answer to that one," Jacob sighed at us.

"Uh, yeah," I mareepishly got up from the floor, "We were just getting very excited, that's all."

"Excited," scoffed David, "About what."

"About something you'll never get," I shot back at him.

"Oh really, and what's that," He sneered, probably thinking I was bluffing.

'Hmmm, a trainers license for one," I smirked at him, "and a Pokemon."

"Say what?" Michael suddenly burst into the room, "Whaddya mean by that."

Grinning I made my way over to where the envelope and the letter had dropped, and picking the up, I handed the letter to Jacob while I went through the rest of what was in the envelope. I pulled out the trainer's guidebook and my trainer's license while Jacob read the letter. My trainer card was dark blue with red stripes on the top and bottom, and a pokeball logo on the right side, and the left side was my statistics, which basically consisted of my name, address, region, and birth date.

I looked back over at Jacob and watched as he finished reading the letter, and then he looked at me, a big smile crossing over his face.

"So, you won then," He said and I nodded, my grin widening.

"She what," David gaped and snatched the letter from Jacob and read it over, "That's no fair, I should have been the one to win, not some pansy like her."

"Pansy, come here and I'll show you pansy," I shouted, anger suddenly flaring up about me.

"You just try it," David retorted, raising his fist threateningly.

"I will," I raised my own fists and readied myself to pounce at him.

"Both of you stop it," Jacob suddenly yelled at us, causing everyone to jump in surprise, "good, now that that's settled, Sayunae congratulations."

Everyone else, save David who was wallowing in jealously, followed Jacobs lead and began congratulating me and looking over the letter and my new trainer card. It was a long while before they all left, leaving Larana and I to the peace of our room.

"Well, looks like two are heading out this year hey," Larana smiled at me cheekily after Michael had left.

"Ha-ha," I grinned at her, "where do you think you'll head to start your journey, Kanto, Jhoto?"

"Stuff that, I'm going with you," Larana said much to my surprise.

"You serious," I gaped at her and she nodded, "You really sure you want to come with me, it'd mean you'd have to wait another two weeks."

"I don't mind," Larana gave a small wave of her hand, "Besides, I'd rather travel around with a friend than strike out on my own."

"Awesome then," I grinned as I walked over to the desk and pulled out a spare notebook, "Now, we need to make a list then of what stuff we need to take."

"You'll be getting most of the stuff you'll need when you receive your prize though," Larana reminded me.

"Better prepared than not," I pointed out to her, "And anyway, we need to get stuff for you too, and Kida of course," I turned to look at the cat, only to find she was nowhere in sight, "Where is she by the way?"

"Oh no," Larana was looking at the open door in horror.

Even as we made our way to the door, we heard a loud smashing sound from down stairs and some loud swearing. We looked at each other in shock as we heard a colorful string of language coming from who we assumed to be Jessica.

"You know, I never thought Jessica knew those words," Larana winced as she prepared to make her way downstairs, "Boy am I going to be in trouble."

"You mean we, I was supposed to keep an eye on her as well," I said as I joined Larana and we went downstairs to face the wrath that was Jessica.

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"Now, are you sure you two have everything," Jessica fussed at us as we hauled our backpacks onto our backs.

For the past two weeks I had attended the Pokemon trainer's classes with Larana, and now, finally, it was time for me and Larana to leave.

"Yes, we have everything, blankets, clothes, food, the guidebook," groaned Larana, "Jessica, there's no need to fuss."

"What about her," I pointed at a sleepy Kida sprawled on the kitchen table, yawning blearily.

"She'll be in her pokeball for the bus trip," Larana informed me in a grumpy voice and I nodded in affirmation.

"Good then, can't have her causing havoc to the passengers," I grinned, "Or you for that matter, I wonder if I can find a pokeball to put you in."

Larana glared at me, and then suddenly lashed out with her hand, nearly catching me on the face as I ducked away.

"Oooh, touchy," I snickered as I took a few steps back from her, poking out my tongue.

"Mew forbid why the bus has to leave at four in the morning," Larana mumbled grumpily.

"Come on, you gotta be a bit happier than that," I laughed and jumping forwards, I pulled at the end of her jet black ponytail.

"Just how many cups of coffee did you drink tonight," Larana finally got fed up with me and yelled, despite the fact that most of the house was still asleep.

"Only one…"

"Oh goody," Larana mumbled, not really believing me.

"Dozen," I then added and barely dodged another swipe.

"Why drink so much coffee, it makes you a lunatic," Larana seethed.

"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to get something to drink," I explained cheerily.

"So you got coffee," Larana said shrilly causing Kida to yowl loudly and hold her ears.

"Well, why not," I snickered at her, if looks could kill, I'd be dead right about now.

"Now girls, calm down," soothed Jessica to no avail, as Larana was still grumpy, and myself still hyper.

I was about to make another comment to Larana to get her even more steamed when Jacob entered the room, fully dressed as were Larana and myself.

"Alright girls, time we left, you don't want to miss your bus," Jacob told us and I jumped towards the door enthusiastically.

Larana shuffled along at a slower place, pausing only at the door to pull Kida's red and white pokeball from her pocket, point it at the Pokemon that had fallen asleep on the table and return her to her pokeball which was then placed back in her pocket and she followed me and Jacob out the door and to the mini van.

Fifteen minutes later found us standing at the bus terminal, our backpacks loaded into our bus and us bidding Jacob goodbye.

"Now do be sure to call when you have the chance, otherwise Jessica will be going insane with worry," Jacob told us, "Now remember that you need to make the money I gave you last, you can't live off Pokemon battles alone."

"We know Jacob and we'll keep the advice you gave us in mind," Larana said, in a considerably lighter mood now that I had calmed down a bit.

"Yeah, and we will call when we can," I added as I gave Jacob a hug.

"Now then, off you go girls," Jacob smiled, "And have fun, and try not to get hurt."

"That last ones from Jessica isn't it," I commented as Larana and I made our way over to the bus.

"You got it," Jacob laughed and he watched us as we boarded the bus.

The bus pulled out of the terminal and from our seats we watched as we went past Jacob waving to him before we pulled onto the main road and went along our way, towards the small village of Judan where I could go get my first Pokemon.

TBC

Alright another chapter finished :D Descriptions and types of the new Pokemon I mentioned will come in later chapters, so keep and eye out for more chapters to come.

The new Pokemon mentioned in this chapter are © by me. Do not use them without permission.

Pokemon is © by Nintendo.


	4. Chapter 4

The Dezen Discovery

By LoneGrowlithe

Chapter Four

I walked back and forth in the small hotel room me and Larana had rented the night before when our bus had arrived in Judan village late last night. Glancing up at the clock, I groaned, I knew for a fact that the ceremony started at nine, it was only 7:37 at the moment, I'd been up since 5:00.

I was dressed in my battle uniform, or my trainer's uniform if you would call it that. It was a pair of black denim jeans, equipped with two belts crossing over each other and handing down by each of my legs, one belt had silver spikes on it, while the other was a magnetized belt, for pokeballs to be stuck onto. A red tank top baring a large part of my stomach and a white jacket with red stripes on the sleeves thrown over the top, and a pair of sturdy walking boots finished it off. My hair was tied back in my usual fashion of a braid, to keep it tamed and out of the way.

I looked over at Larana who was lying on her bed reading through the guidebook I'd received with my letter that told me that I'd won. It was only a basic guidebook, only briefly telling you a bit about Dezen and a little bit about the Pokemon that would be presented as prizes at the ceremony; I expected that I would get a more detailed guidebook when I received my prize pack.

Larana herself had picked out her own uniform. She wore a nice pair of acid-washed denim jeans, equipped with a magnetized trainer's belt, a black t-shirt with a Charizard splayed on the front spewing flames upward to form the word Char-girl. Sturdy boots like my own and her hair tied back in a tight ponytail to keep it from getting in the way.

"You should really stop pacing," Larana mentioned to me, not lifting her eyes from the book.

"But I can't help it, and it's taking so long," I whined as I sat down on the end of my bed.

"Well, looking at the clock every two minutes isn't going to help," Larana commented.

I sighed and flopped backwards so that I was lying down, crossing my hands behind my head.

"It's just that I'm so excited, I'm going to be getting my first Pokemon today, and then we can head out together and have fun traveling around, catching new Pokemon and that sort of stuff, but time is just going so slow that it's like it'll never happen," I explained, looking at the ceiling fan spin around slowly of its own accord.

"Well, I don't really think I can understand how that feels, but maybe you should just calm down, then maybe time will pass by quicker."

"Maybe," I sighed propping myself up on my elbows to look at her, "You know, Kida's been in her pokeball all of yesterday, and all of last night, don't you think you should let her out for something to eat and a bit of fresh air."

"Your right," a look of horror passed Larana's face, "How could I have been so stupid, she must be starving, she didn't even eat breakfast yesterday."

Reaching over the end of the bed to the jeans she had been wearing the day before, Larana yanked out Kida's pokeball and hastily opened it, releasing the small brown and cream kitten into the fresh air. Once she had fully materialized from the bright white energy she had been stored as, she immediately starting mewing, loudly, but we understood the general idea of what she was trying to say. Food.

Larana rummaged around in her pack for the Pokemon food she had packed before we left, and a small dish which she then filed up with the food and placing it on the floor for Kida to access. We sat in silence after that, the only sound was Kida's contented mews as she ate.

We stayed in our hotel room for roughly another half hour before finally deciding to head out somewhere for breakfast and then heading, slowly, over towards the Pokemon lab belonging to the Dezen regions well known Professor Bramble. It always irked me, that all the professors were ironically named after plants, Professor Bramble himself named after a bush.

We sat on some benches that were arranged in front of his lab, in the large park like front garden, and waited while Kida gamboled about happily in the grass. We didn't wait long as we heard the sounds of raucous laughter and two boys came walking up the pathway. Both looked snooty and rich, and when they saw us, turned up their noses.

I narrowed my eyes at them, at once disliking them for their actions. One was roughly my age, with smoky black hair just long enough to dangle in his eyes and flashing, cold green eyes which sent a shiver down my spine when he looked at me. He was wearing a regular black t-shirt with a grey vest thrown over the top, regular blue jeans like the standard fare of most trainers, as were the sturdy black walking boots he wore, a backpack was slung heavily over his shoulders.

His companion was a boy with fierce red hair allowed to grow out naturally into a spiky crop, dangling inexplicably over his equally cold blue eyes, shading them from view. He wore mainly colors of varying reds, a bright red t-shirt with a dark red vest thrown over it, and maroon jeans topped off with deep brown red boots. He also had a backpack slung over his back and happened to notice me staring at them.

"Oy, what you looking at you Raticate," he snapped at me with disgust

"Nothing, except your ugly Muk face," I retorted with equal disgust, stupid rich boys.

"Take that back," He turned on me angrily, raising a fist.

"Ease up Keith, she 'aint worth it," his companion said, sneering at me, "She's just here to watch most likely."

I prepared to make a retort, but Larana placing a calming hand on my shoulder stopped me, and I sat in silence, simmering with anger. The two boys looked at me as I sat and simmered and burst out into victorious laughter as they walked away to find seats on another bench. Time seemed to pass by much slower after that.

The other winning trainers arrived and I counted them as they came in, Kida had gotten into a game of tag with some pokemon that were hanging around out the front. I glanced at my watch, with a black band and a face with the image of a glittery Vulpix on a black background with small white numbers surrounding it. My mood became considerably lighter, and I started to get very excited, for my watch read 8:45, only fifteen more minutes and then the ceremony would start.

My excitement was soon noticed by Larana and she began to inch away from me slowly, as I started to fidget around a lot, my excitement starting to make me go a bit hyper. I had a grin plastered on my face, and some of the kids who had gathered were looking at me like I was insane, I cheekily poked my tongue at them, earning a brandishing glare from Larana which I returned good-naturedly.

I sat for what felt like ages, my excitement beginning to swell, when I heard the sound of something opening and I turned my attention to the front door of the lab, to see a short haired brunette aide poking out her head and looking us over. I watched as her lips moved slightly and I realized she was counting us over.

"Well, it appears there are more here than should be," she said to herself, yet we all heard her.

"Don't worry, I'm here to travel with my friend," Larana volunteered her information.

"So are we," a boy announced as he and a girl raised their hands from where they were standing next to each other.

"Well, then the rest must be the competition winners," the aide seemed to sigh with relief and then beckoned us inside, "Do come in," she smiled and then turned to Larana and the other two, "If you three could please wait outside, it shouldn't take too long," She spoke to them softly and they nodded.

The rest of us slowly filed into the lab and the aide closed the door as the last of us, a petite girl with blonde tresses and soft strawberry eyes, walked in and ran to the front of the group.

"If you would all follow me, I'll lead you to where the ceremony has been set up," the aide told us and she led us through the maze of corridors.

There was only one word to describe the inner working of the building, Huge. Machinery and all sorts of equipment were everywhere. Aides bustled about with papers, pokeballs, and Pokemon. There was even a room where Pokemon eggs of varying sizes and colors were lined up along the walls, settled comfortably into incubators.

Our walk soon ended, leaving me in awe at all I had seen in the lab, and we entered a large room in which all the machinery had been set aside to make room for a podium upon a stage on which sat the three professors representing the regions that had been elected for the competition. Twelve chairs sat in two rows of six in front of the podium and above was a large silver computer screen. I noticed a table set up along the back of the stage, slightly shielded from sight by the podium, and on it rested bags of varying colors.

"Please, take a seat," the aide told us politely before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

I immediately dashed forwards and leapt onto a seat on the left end of the front row, while everyone else was a bit less enthusiastic and took to their seats slowly. Once we were all seated, the well known and recognized, yet all the wiser Professor Oak stood up to the podium getting our utmost attention and began to talk.

"Welcome to all you budding young new trainers who have placed somewhere within the twelve spots of this year's competition," Professor oak spoke kindly and calmly, "No doubt you are all eager to receive your prize pack and your beginning Pokemon so we'll try not to bore you with any long speeches."

Everyone gave out some nervous laughs at the professors' attempt of a joke, myself included, as he stepped back and went to his seat to allow a tall man wearing bright orange and blue khaki shorts and an equally bright yellow t-shirt with a white lab coat thrown over the top to step forwards to the podium. He had dirty blonde hair and soft teal eyes and a kind face to him and he began to speak, telling us of how the presentation of our prizes would be performed.

"Well, as you may or may not know, I am Professor Bramble, now as we call each of you name you are to stand up and watch the screen," Professor bramble pointed to the large silver screen above him, "Receiving your Pokemon is going to be a chance selection, the screen above is going to shift through each of the individual pictures of the Pokemon before stopping on one at random, the picture it stops on will be the Pokemon you will receive as your starter."

Everyone nodded, albeit a bit crestfallen, as random selection meant that you might not get the Pokemon you wanted. I was feeling a bit crestfallen about that myself, but I figured that any Pokemon was better than no Pokemon.

"You also know you will be receiving a new backpack with prize items inside," Professor Bramble continued, "These items include fifteen pokeballs, five greatballs, a single ultraball, twenty of each potions, antidotes and revives, ten super potions, a more detailed guidebook than the one you received with your reply, maps of Dezen, Kanto and Jhoto, a certificate of free registration into the Dezen Pokemon League, and a state of the art pokedex containing information on all the current known species of Pokemon in the world up to date," He stopped slightly as we all nodded in awe and surprise at the contents of the actual prize pack, "and also, when you have reached a select number of badges, you are allowed to come back to me to collect your very own masterball."

That declaration started whispers among us: masterballs were rare, not because they were the best pokeball to have ever been made, with the capability of catching almost any Pokemon besides legendaries successfully, but because one of the metals used in the making of the masterballs came from two select species of Pokemon that were hunted to extinction on other regions, and the last remnants of their kind now resided only in the Dezen wilderness or in breeding centers or farms across the world. It stunned us because of that purpose and the fact that each of us was allowed to get one each.

"Alright now, Quiet, Quiet, we will now be beginning the Pokemon selection," Professor Elm stood up to the podium with a piece of paper held in his hands as everyone went deathly silent, "First place is awarded to Wesley Hart."

Wesley Hart, to my apparent distaste was one of the snobbish boys from earlier this morning, he stood up with a smug look on his face, probably thinking that he was better than everyone else here because he won first place. All of us looked up at the screen as it flared to life, quickly flicking through pictures of the prize Pokemon, and going through them so fast I could barely tell what was what. Suddenly it stopped, right on the picture of an orange lizard with a blazing flame at the end of its tail.

"Congratulation Wesley, your beginning Pokemon is Charmander," Professor Elm said as Wesley walked up on stage.

Professor Bramble had picked an orange red backpack, like the color of Charmander's skin, from the table behind him and he handed it to Wesley as he reached him. I noticed a small mesh pocket on the side of the bag contained an equally orange red pokeball in it, probably containing Charmander. Wesley stepped down form the stage and resumed his seat, his new backpack resting on his lap.

"Second place goes to Rhane Carson," Professor Elm spoke again as Wesley regained his seat.

A girl with rusty red brown hair and striking silver blue gray eyes stood up and we all tuned our attention to the screen once more. The image landed on that of Squirtle, and she gleefully jumped up to receive the teal backpack with teal pokeball in the side pocket.

Third was another boy named Frank Liasen, his Pokemon was Pidgey and he received a cream brown backpack and pokeball. I had begun fidgeting again as my excitement grew with each passing person.

"Fourth place goes to Sayunae Waverson," Professor Elm announced and I jumped out of my seat eagerly, watching the screen above.

The remaining pictures sifted through, before coming to a rest on a small bird, all its feathers ablaze with flames. Asydri, as I recalled from the guidebook, was one of Dezens' starter Pokemon up for grabs. I leapt up onto the stage and gratefully received my new blaze colored backpack and pokeball containing my starter. I rushed back to my seat, hugging the slightly heavy backpack to my chest, thanking the luck that got me one of the Pokemon I was keen for.

Next was another guy Joey Janeser who received Totodile, with a turquoise backpack and pokeball, followed by Harold Netorn who got Bulbasaur with an emerald bag and pokeball. Casey Loft, the blonde haired and cherry eyed girl, who got Chickorita with a forest green backpack and pokeball, and a pair of twins by the names Kitrina and Katrina received the two Dezen Pokemon Cascardron and Leafius with blue and green backpacks and pokeballs respectively. Phil Loch received Cyndaquil with a black and red backpack and pokeball, a girl named Shelley Mackay got Zaep, another Dezen Pokemon with a bright yellow backpack and pokeball, leaving Keith Juruko to get Pichu and a black and yellow backpack and pokeball.

"Well, I do hope you are all successful in your journeys have fun and be careful," Professor Oak spoke to us kindly and expressing his words with his arms, "Congratulations to you all."

Everyone cheered and there was a sudden rush for the door, I waited until the flow had died down before following, eventually finding my way outside once again in the fresh air. A few of the people were still milling around, forming up traveling groups most likely, but I expected some of them had headed off already. I spotted Larana still sitting on the bench we had been on before, but now with Kida sitting firmly in her lap as she stroked her.

I walked over to her, still hugging my blaze backpack to my chest. When she spotted me, she stood up with a grateful smile, holding Kida securely in her arms.

"There you are," Larana said with a sigh, "I was beginning to think you left without me."

"Would I do that to you," I said innocently.

"You have, remember, the time at the fair," Larana raised an eyebrow speculatively.

"Alright so maybe I've done it once or twice," I snickered, "but the one at the fair was funny, you completely freaked out," I burst out into laughter, "and you didn't realize I was standing right behind you for a full ten minutes."

"Shut up," Larana blushed furiously, clamping a free hand over my mouth, "Don't yell it out for everyone to hear."

"Alright, alright," I said jubilantly as I removed Larana's hand, "Why don't we go somewhere more peaceful, so I can pack all my new stuff into this bag and get to know my new pal."

"Sure," Larana shrugged, "What Pokemon did you get anyway."

"You'll see."

Gathering our stuff together, we left Professor Brambles lab, and found a nice place just outside of Judan village where we could sit for a while. Once we had settled down, letting Kida loose to go play off in the long grass, I dumped everything out of both bags and began to pack it all into the Blaze bag as I had begun to call it. Taking five of my spare pokeballs, minimized to the size of a bonker, I stuck them to my magnetized belt along with my Asydri's blaze colored ball taken out of the mesh pocket, packing the rest of the pokeballs, along with the greatballs and the ultraball, all minimized, into mesh pocket on the blaze bag, where Asydri's pokeball had been before.

I slotted my new pokedex, colored like my backpack and the pokeball, into my jeans pocket, and eventually finished packing all my stuff in, being left with one bag full of my stuff, and an empty bag on the floor.

"You still haven't told me what Pokemon you got," Larana said to me when I had finished, looking somewhat annoyed.

"That's right, I haven't, have I," I grinned, pulling Asydri's pokeball from my belt.

Maximizing the Blaze Ball that held my Pokemon, I threw it up into the air and let it strike the floor, bursting apart into two halves once it had, before it closed and returned to my hand. From the white light that had issued forth from the pokeball, a small bird Pokemon formed from the light, each and every single one of its feathers ablaze with flame, a curved beak made for tearing into prey and feet armed with talons for snatching victims from the ground. Some feathers poked upwards from the top of its head, forming a blazing crest. Wings sized enough to keep itself aloft, streamlined for speed in the air, and a long blazing tail streaming along behind it.

My new Asydri looked around for a moment, before spotting me, and chirping happily, recognizing me as his new trainer by the fact that I held his pokeball, and hopped on his feet towards me. I knelt down and began to stroke his head, not surprised that his flames didn't hurt me, but more surprised by the fact that despite the flames, I could still feel the soft texture of his feathers.

"Awesome, you got an Asydri," Larana exclaimed as Kida came bounding over to see the newcomer.

The two Pokemon started to sniff at each other, before Kida playfully batted Asydri on the side and leaping away, with Asydri leaping into the air and following her in flight. I watched for a couple of moments, before falling into thought about what name I would give him, although, I was only guessing that it was a him, it could be a her for all I know.

Pulling my pokedex out of my pocket, I sat down once again, flipping it open and beginning to program my trainer data into it. The pokedex, of its own accord, took my photo for my in pokedex trainer identification incase I somehow misplaced my Trainer Card. With that done, I pointed the pokedex at Asydri and let it bring up the information.

"Asydri the blaze feather Pokemon

Asydri is commonly used as one of the three starter Pokemon for the Dezen region. Its flames consume nearly all of its body, and these flames cannot be put out by any means.

Pokemon gender: Male

Pokemon size: 1'10"

Pokemon Type: Fire/Flying

Attacks: Tackle, Leer, Ember," My pokedex beeped out in an electronic sounding voice.

Male it was then, now, just to find a name. I watched as he gallivanted about with Kida, the two playing happily. Sighing, I called him over and he flew to land in front of me.

"Well Asydri, would you like a name?" I asked him and he chirped happily in agreement, "Alright then, tell me, how does the name Blazer sound to you."

Asydri looked at me for a moment with his head cocked to one side before shaking it in discontent.

"Flare." He shook his head again. "Fire." Another shake of the head, and I sighed, trying to think of something else. "What about inferno?" Once again he shook his head.

I pondered for a bit more, "Wolf?" Asydri looked at me as if in thought, before giving vigorous shakes of his head.

"Asy, dri dri, asydri," He chirruped about happily.

"Well, guess your new names Wolf," I smiled and he went over to play with Kida once again.

"Wolf?" Larana looked at me strangely, "Who ever heard of a bird Pokemon named Wolf."

"Who cares," I scoffed at her, "It was his choice anyway."

"Riiiight," droned Larana for a moment or two, "Look, why don't we head back into town and get some more supplies."

"I though we already had enough supplies," I whined, "and besides, I wanted to start heading for the next city."

"Well, who knows how long it'll take us to get there, and besides, we can't travel without food or water," Larana said with a voice of reason.

"Guess your right," I sighed as I hauled on my now heavier Blaze Bag after tossing in my old empty one, "Wolf, come on, we're heading into town."

Wolf gave a squawk of delight and came over to land on my shoulder, albeit wobbly. He was a pretty big bird, I realized, when on the ground I figured he could be a bit bigger than my knee, on my shoulder it was nearly causing me to fall over. But I ignored the initial discomfort as he landed and found my balance once more, before catching up to Larana who had already begun walking and heading back into the village.

TBC

Just a nice chapter in which Sayunae get her first Pokemon. Well hope this chappy was okay, Please review.

The new Pokemon mentioned in this chapter are © by me. Do not use them without permission.

Pokemon is © by Nintendo


	5. Chapter 5

The Dezen Discovery

By LoneGrowlithe

Chapter Five

The area around us was awake with the sounds of unseen Pokemon, although Larana and I ourselves were quiet. We were a bit weary, for we had been walking up the steadily climbing hill for hours. It turned out that Judan village had been build at the bottom of a big curved area of high land, with a steady slope downwards or upwards, whichever way you were heading, just our luck, we had to go upwards. Halfway up a forest had sprouted, which we were now walking through.

So far, however, there hadn't been much luck in the area of Pokemon, in fact, I had no luck, and the only luck Larana had was when Kida had leapt into a colony of Fersies, snagged one, battled it herself, and dragged it back unconscious for Larana to capture while the rest of the colony bounded away, leaving me and Wolf unable to snag one ourselves.

Fersies themselves were small rabbit Pokemon with long ears and twitching noses, mainly furred with white, but brown splotches were a common occurrence for their pelt. They were very common in Dezen and highly adaptable, much like Kanto's Rattata. They rivaled Kida in size, but were more commonly known to run from battle than get involved, which made them pretty darn hard to catch. But we had long left them behind on the plains we had long since passed. Larana's new Fersies was a shy, as was most of the species, male which she had named Polka for the motley of brown splotches covering him.

We continued along the path, daring not to stray from it for the time being, Wolf flying solitary above the trees, keeping a sharp eye out for wild Pokemon, while Kida bounced from bush to bush, in hopes of flushing something out of hiding. While still staying hopeful that we might find more Pokemon, we knew that we would have to stop soon, it was nearing dark.

We were probably behind all the other trainers, I thought grumpily, for we had delayed in Judan to make sure we were well stocked up on supplies, not only for ourselves, but for our Pokemon too, making sure we had plenty of food, and extra healing supplies, couldn't hurt to be prepared, or so Larana had said.

"We're going have to stop for the night soon," Larana cautioned me as we walked.

"I know, I just hope we find some more Pokemon today," I replied as I shifted my Blaze Bag higher on my shoulder, "My Blaze Bag feels like a lead weight."

"Why do you call it that," Larana stopped walking and turned to me.

"Call it what," I stopped to look at her with a confused face.

"Your backpack," Larana spoke, "You call it your Blaze Bag, why?"

"I dunno, just do I guess," I shrugged.

"You do notice that you call Wolfs pokeball the Blaze Ball too," Larana pointed out and I looked at her in surprise.

"I do," I said incredulously, then grinning, "I never noticed, but you can't say it doesn't suit."

"You're a freak," Larana concluded and she began to walk again.

"Well, you're a freak too," I retorted and followed after shifting the Blaze Bag once more.

"Look, why don't we find somewhere to make camp, it's beginning to get dark," Larana piped up after we had walked a few more minutes, "I don't think we'll have any luck with Pokemon either, a lot of them are probably bedding down for the night."

I looked around and noticed that less light was filtering through the trees and that the sounds of Pokemon were beginning to lessen. Looking up, I noticed the sky was getting darker fast and I could now see a glow around Wolf I couldn't see earlier in full light.

"Alright," I resigned, "Let's set up camp."

"Good choice, that way we won't have to do it by Wolfs flame later," Larana perked up a bit and she began to look around, "Now, let's find a clearing."

I left Larana to her own devices and looked up at Wolf again, who still seemed keen to keep an eye out for wild Pokemon. I followed Larana as we stepped off the path and into the trees that surrounded us, looking for a nice clear area to set up camp. We finally located one as daylight began to fail considerably, Wolf had abandoned the air a long while ago, and had since taken perch on my shoulder, lighting the darkening forest for a large area around us with his feathers.

Once we had affirmed that the clearing was large enough, I put down my blaze bag and looked around more carefully. It was large, with trees on all sides, and a nice gap in the tree branches to show the sky above. A small brook bubbled nearby from which we could undoubtedly refill our water bottles with a fresh supply of water. I looked around at the clearing again, before leaning down to my Blaze Bag and untying the sleeping bag and tightly rolled tarp I had tied down the bottom of it.

Placing the sleeping bag on the ground I unrolled the tarp to reveal a stretchy kind of fabric, spandex, I think and a heap of poles tied together, along with a sheet of instructions. Picking up the instructions, I began to read, or at least tried to as I turned the sheet around and trying to make head or tails of the jumble of pictures and words. After a while I gave up, grumbling I tossed the paper to the floor and grabbed the poles and began to fit them together as best I could, while Wolf watched.

Ten minutes later, with only Wolfs light to go by, I gave up tossing the poles and spandex to the leafy forest floor and sitting down, crossing my arms and grumbling while Wolf burst into merry peals of laughter. Larana was laughing too, her tent had been set up ages ago, and she had just arrived back in camp with an armload of firewood and with Kida dogging her heels with a flashlight in her mouth.

"Well, good to see you have _your_ tent up," she snickered as she dumped her load of wood down.

"Shut up," I growled, still sooking from my place on the ground nearby my abandoned tent "It's not my fault the instructions don't make sense."

"Well they would if you paid attention in the pre-journey classes you came to with me."

"Whatever," I grumbled, inaudibly mumbling curses at the tent.

"Here, let me show you," sighed Larana and she helped me set up my tent.

After my tent had been set up with enormous help from Larana while our pokemon watched, cracking upwith laughter the whole time, we began to go about getting some dinner ready, not only for us, but for our Pokemon too. Polka and Kida had worked together and dug a small pit out of the ground, in which we placed the wood Larana had gathered and let Wolf set it on fire.

After eating we washed up our cooking stuff before heading to bed, the fatigue of our exploits for the day catching up on us.

I was woken abruptly the next morning by a loud screeching yell and a loud clatter from outside my tent. Alarmed, I scrambled to get to my feet but I only managed to get my legs tangled about in my sleeping bag as I did so.

"Crap," I yelled as fell sideways, but luckily through the open door of my tent and into the outside world while I battled with the sleeping bag to get it off of my legs, "Get Off!"

I finally managed to kick off my sleeping bag and pull myself into the weak light of early dawn. Standing up abruptly, I saw at once what had awoken me. It had been Wolf, brightening the area around him, who had fallen into the pile of saucepans and bowls that had been set out to dry last night, but the cause hadn't been his own.

At the edge of the field, worming away as fast as its little legs could muster and only just visible from Wolfs light, was a caterpillar Pokemon. It was small, a lot smaller than Wolf; it couldn't have been much higher than my ankle. It had a long body with its tail so to say being a small sharp jutting spike. On the back of its head were two spikes and traveling in two rows to halfway along its body were more spikes being a pearly white. Its colors however, were astounding; its head was a very light blue, but as the blue progressed down its body, it started to get darker, until it was so dark, it appeared almost black, and this point was at halfway down its body, just after where the spikes ended, then the color started getting lighter, but had changed completely to green which started dark and continued getting lighter until the very end of its tail spike which was a vibrant hue of bright green.

Diving for the clothes I had discarded the night before for pajamas, I pulled out my pokedex and pointed it at the retreating Pokemon as Larana tried to fight her way out of her collapsed tent and Wolf disengaged himself from the clutter of pots and pans noisily.

"Elervae the spike worm Pokemon," The pokedex started to drone in its monotonous electrical voice, "Elervae are common Pokemon to be found in forested areas, known as the spike worm Pokemon for the spikes trailing down its back and its tail spike filled with stunning toxins.

Pokemon gender: Male

Pokemon size: 0'7"

Pokemon type: Bug type," The pokedex finished, yet unlike the time it gave me Wolf's information, I didn't get a list of its attacks, probably because I hadn't caught it.

"I'm gonna catch it," I called out to the trapped Larana.

"Catch what," Larana's muffled and distressed voice came from the tent that Kida and Polka were ardently trying to pull apart with teeth to free their trainer.

I just shook my head at her and dove into my tent once more, but this time to grab an empty pokeball from my discarded belt and run over to where Wolf stood intimidating in front of the bug, his blazing wings spread out to block the bugs' path as he stood in front of it. I felt ridiculous, trying to catch a Pokemon while in my pajamas, but I shoved the thoughts away and prepared for battle.

"Good call Wolf, now, let's battle it down and catch it," I pulled my left hand into a fist in front of me, while my right hand held a maximized empty pokeball, which could have been about the size of my fist, "Tackle it."

Wolf immediately gave a mighty pump of his wings, and rushed forwards, ramming into Elervae with a large amount of force causing it to slide back a few feet and roll over onto its back. Veering upwards into the air, Wolf cast a wary eye on his opponent below, waiting for commands. Elervae rolled itself back onto its stomach and looked up at Wolf, before rearing its head back a lobbing a large glob of white goo towards him from its mouth.

Wolf faltered in the air at the prospect of the small Pokemon launching a projectile, but gathered himself enough to soar out of the way. Wolf watched as the glop when speeding past him and through the trees, distracted enough that he stayed hovering in the one spot, and was caught in the back of the head by another unexpected blob of goo to late for me to warn him about it. Almost immediately, the goo burst into flame, black wispy smoke and ashes falling away from Wolfs head as he turned to glare at the unfortunate bug Pokemon.

"Wolf, use Ember," I called and Wolf complied.

Wolf dipped into a dive and rocketed for Elervae, it looked as though he was going to plough full on into the bug and I became fearful, for impact with the ground could injure him greatly. I prepared to call him off, when suddenly he pulled sharply out of his dive and flicked his tail at Elervae sending small blazes of fire falling onto the bugs' skin, effectively scorching him.

I suddenly had to clamp my hands over my ears, dropping the empty pokeball to the ground, as the bug let off a resounding shriek that sent Wolf veering into a tree, Kida began to yowl and Polka tried to shrink into as small a ball as possible. Larana was yelling something incomprehensible, her voice greatly muffled by the folds of the tent she still had to navigate her way out of. Eventually, the shriek died down, and I realized that it hadn't just been a shriek, but a full blown Screech attack.

The bug, despite being burnt, still seemed eager to leave, headed once more at a slow crawl for the trees. Wolf, sprawled on the floor after having a nice little chat with the tree, staggered to his feet, and stumbled about a bit, before getting his balance and leaping into the air with a flare of his wings. But once in the air, he didn't seem any better than he was on the ground, nearly colliding with a couple more trees.

Biting my lip, I decided to take a chance, quickly bending down and snatching up the dropped pokeball, I pulled my arm back, aimed, and lobbed it at the retreating back of Elervae. The ball slammed into Elervae's back and it started a Screech attack out of surprise, which was cut short as the Pokemon was converted into dull red energy that was absorbed into the ball.

The now occupied pokeball dropped to the floor, and shook for a moment or two before stilling and releasing a dull chiming sound. I stood for a moment, a little bit taken aback by the capture, before I suddenly leapt to my feet with a jubilant yell.

"Yes, finally, I caught my first Pokemon," I jumped about, punching the air above me, "Yes, Yes, Yes! Way to go, you done awesome Wolf."

My flaming bird smiled lopsidedly as he came in for a landing on the ground, only to flop wing over talon onto his back, sliding to a stop by my feet.

"Silly bird," I laughed as I righted him, before pulling him into a loving hug, "You did great Wolf, and thanks to you, we now have a new friend."

"Asydri," Wolf chirped, before giving his head a shake to clear his minute confusion and walking with a ungainly pace over to where Elervae's pokeball lay and began to push it about with his beak.

"So, what Pokemon did you catch?" A disheveled Larana spoke as she walked over; trying to run a brush through her knotted hair, anger to be heard in her voice.

"An Elervae."

"A what now?" Larana looked up at me confused, her hand stilled with her brush caught in her hair.

"It's a bug Pokemon," I said to her, and heard a small croon by my feet, looking down; I saw it was Wolf, with Elervae's pokeball solitary in front of him.

"Really, can I see?" Asked Larana, as she started to brush her hair again, all anger now dissipated for the time being, she really wasn't a morning person.

"Just wait," I muttered as I headed over to my tent and yanked out my Blaze Bag and digging through it to grab a potion, and as an afterthought, a revive.

I walked back over to where Wolf, and Elervae's pokeball resided, then picking up the regular red and white ball, I turned it towards the ground, and released the Pokemon inside. Elervae appeared, tumbling out onto the grass, burns on his skin and despite this he still found the energy to hiss at Wolf when he saw him.

"Hey, ease up little guy," I spoke to him softly as I picked him up, "No need for that now, Wolf won't attack you, he's your friend now."

"Funny looking bug," Larana spoke up, earning a hiss in her direction.

The Elervae looked up at me, and then settled down in my lap, content for the moment. Thankful that little bit was over with, and that my new Pokemon wouldn't attack Wolf, I picked up the potion and began to spray it on Elervae's burns. Elervae hissed a bit as the potion healed the minor wounds, but then settled down again when he felt his energy returning, after that was done; I picked Elervae up so I could look him in the face.

"You need a name," I declared to him as I put him down, "Does Elliott work for you."

"Vae," Elervae hissed loudly.

"Looks like he doesn't like it," Larana commented.

"I figured that," I snapped back at her, before placing Elervae on the ground, "Hippa?"

Elervae just looked at me like I was insane.

"Oy, I'm horrible with names," I groaned, smacking myself on the forehead, "Jack," I tried, Elervae hesitated a moment, before shaking his head no, "Jakura then."

Again a hesitation, I prepared to blurt out another name, when suddenly Elervae started to bounce about, trilling his species name happily in a high pitched voice which put a bit of strain on the ears.

"I'll take that as a yes," I sighed gratefully, "Welcome to the team Jakura."

"Eler/Asyd," my team of two Pokemon exclaimed happily before they began to talk with each other.

"Play nice you two," I laughed as they were joined by Kida and Polka.

Looking up at the sky, I noticed that it was still dark, but more light was creeping across it every moment; there was no way I was getting back to sleep now, not after the momentary rush of excitement, and besides, an earlier start to the day would get us to our destination quicker. Looking over to where the tents had been set up, I noticed, that while mine was still standing, Larana's had collapsed in on itself, why I didn't really know.

"Well Larana, you may good at putting tent up," I commented out loud, hearing a distant splash and a yell while I was acting like our camping skills teacher, "But your way of taking them down is less than satisfactory."

"Shut up," Larana snapped as she stalked over, throwing a plastic cup she had in her hands.

"Ooooh, touchy this morning, aren't we," I teased as I ducked away from the flying cup and watched it bounce away.

"I just fell in the river Moron," Larana snarled at me, I turned back to her and noticed she was sopping wet, wringing out her hair.

"How did you manage that," I said, trying my hardest to keep a straight face.

"Why don't you ask your bird, he seems to enjoy pushing people into water sources," Larana grumbled, flinging her wringed out hair over her shoulder, and then beginning to wring out her shirt.

I couldn't hold it any longer, and I burst out laughing at my friends' misfortune. The Pokemon seemed a bit confused, but Wolf was laughing right alongside me. Traveling around was going to be a lot of fun when Larana was there to provide the entertainment.

TBC

Okay, another chapter finished. I just want to say thank you to those who have reviewed my story and/or faved it, tis very encouraging.

The new Pokemon mentioned in this chapter are © by me. Do not use them without permission.

Pokemon is © by Nintendo.


	6. Chapter 6

The Dezen Discovery

By LoneGrowlithe

Chapter Six

Groaning, I finally decided that I had enough of walking for the time being, and flopped down on a soft cushion of grass to rest. Wolf, weary and somewhat upset, came fluttering down beside me and curled up to have a snooze. Larana however, didn't think it was the best idea to be lying down.

"Sayunae, stop being lazy and get up," she snapped as she loomed over my face, blocking my view of the trees above.

"Look Larana, we've been walking for," I stopped talking for a moment to glance at my watch, before continuing with my arguing tone, "three and a half hours straight, I think we need a rest, I know my feet are killing me."

"Tana," Kida agreed with me, whining pitifully at her trainer as she sat down on the ground, before falling sideways from exhaustion.

"See, even Kida can't go on," I pointed out to her, while I stroked Wolf's head.

Larana looked at me, anger still creasing her features, and then at her tired cream and brown kitten Pokemon, before sighing in defeat, her face losing its cast of anger, "Fine, we'll rest then."

"Best thing you've said all day," I smiled and let all of my frustrations leave me.

"I just wish we weren't lost," groaned Larana as she set down her bag and sat on a felled tree long dead.

After packing up our camp this morning and beginning to set out, it was to realize that we had camped further away from the path than we had meant to, which left us utterly lost. I'd tried sending Wolf up above the trees to locate the path, and he had, but once he was below the trees again, he couldn't discern which way the path was and got upset by the fact that he couldn't help, leaving the two of us to wander around lost with an upset Asydri and compliant Kitana for company.

We'd come across a few wild Pokemon, but when we tried to battle them, it ended up with them running away before the battle was finished, or the Pokemon was too strong and creamed us, causing us to be the ones to run away from it, as was the case with a Mightyena we had the bad luck come across, and be chased by for a good ten minutes.

Although this forest was one newbie trainers traversed regularly, capturing the weaker Pokemon, there was also to be found the occasional strong Pokemon, including evolutions of those Pokemon to be found in the forest itself, as was with our Mightyena encounter, but usually those stronger Pokemon stayed well away from the path, which gave us reason to believe that we were deeper into the forest than intended.

"Yeah, well so do I," I countered Larana's complaint, "Anyway, it wasn't me who chose the campsite last night."

"I don't want to talk about that," Larana moaned as she covered her ears with her hands.

"Fine," I scoffed, and then whispered to Wolf with an indication over to Larana, "Crybaby."

Wolf began to snicker, before bursting into fresh peals of laughter, his upset demeanor evaporating with his newfound happiness. Larana glared at me a bit before turning her full attention to her worn out Kitana. After a while of silence, I got sick of it, and let Jakura out for some air before turning to talk to Larana.

"So, how long do you think it'll take us to find the path," I asked her as I sat up.

"Dunno," Larana sighed, looking at the ground, "Guess it's my fault though."

"Who cares whose fault it is," I waved it off, "What do you expect, your bound to get lost sometime or another."

"I guess so," Larana replied, not really cheering up.

"Look, we'll rest for a while, and then keep walking, we'll find the way out of here sooner or later," I said to her.

Larana said nothing, but gave a couple of nods of her head. Lying down again, I watched Jakura as he waddled his way over to a nearby bush and began to eat the leaves growing on it, my new Pokemon was still getting used to me I guess, for he was not as friendly with me as Wolf currently was, but he was wild caught, and Wolf had probably been around humans his whole life.

Larana seemed to take my lead, and released Polka from his pokeball, leaving the rabbit free to hop about everywhere, inspecting some new things confidently and shying away from others. Turning my attention away from the Pokemon, I looked up at the leaves and branches of the trees above me, and closed my eyes, feeling suddenly sleepy.

I was just nodding off to sleep, when a loud squeal entered my ears, jolting me from my near slumber. Bolting upwards, I saw that it was Polka, being attacked by what appeared to be a black and grey blur dashing about everywhere. Wolf was next to me, wings outstretched to either side of him to make him appear intimidating, Jakura had ambled quickly over to me and was curled up by my side, shivering incessantly.

Larana had been alerted to her Pokemons plight by the frightened squeal he had given and was on her feet, looking over at where her white and brown speckled Fersies was curled up in a tight ball, being pounded endlessly by the unknown Pokemon we couldn't yet identify because it was moving too fast.

"Keep up using Defense Curl Polka," Larana called out to her frightened Pokemon, who had begun to use the attack on instinct.

It was a few terse moment before the blur finally realized it was getting nowhere with the current attack it was using and slowed to a stop. Now that it had stopped, I could see what it was. A small dog Pokemon easily more than half the size of Wolf, with black fur covering most of its body, whilst the rest of it was a stark grey. A very bushy tail bristled with anger, while furious yellow eyes glared down at Polka, and too large teeth jutted up from its lower jaw. I knew what it was, having encountered its evolution earlier, but I accessed my pokedex regardless, wanting to hear the information.

"Poochyena, the Bite Pokemon

Poochyena are vicious canine Pokemon who guard their territory zealously. They tend to travel in packs and work together to drive off invaders.

Pokemon Gender: Female

Pokemon Size: 1'4"

Pokemon Type: Dark," my pokedex finished, I looked up to notice Larana's head turned slightly my way, as she had been listening.

"My catch?" Larana questioned.

"Go ahead, she attacked Polka first, and that shouldn't go unpunished now, should it," I told her, giving her a thumbs up while Wolf, a bit ruffled about being frightened, settled down to preen his feathers back into place.

As he done so, I lifted Jakura, who I now deduced to be my scaredy Meowth Elervae, from his place by my side, and placed his shivering form in my lap and began to stroke his head to calm him down.

"Are you going to watch Jakura," I asked him, "you may have to fight a Poochyena yourself one day."

Jakura uncurled his body, still shivering, but turned his full attention towards the battle which had begun with earnest. Poochyena, angered by her inability to injure the Pokemon she was attacking, cocked back her head and released a howl that split through the air, frightening poor Polka out of his protective ball, and also enriching her with more power to fight with.

Polka, nothing more than a shivering mess, jumpily got into a battle position, not to keen on fighting an opponent that scared him so much.

"Come on Polka, don't be afraid," Larana called out encouragingly, "Give it a growl attack."

Polka, taking Larana's word of encouragement, braved up a bit, while still shivery endlessly, and let loose as fierce a growl as he could, but Poochyena wasn't fazed in the least, and retaliated with a swift Tackle to Polka's side. Polka squealed in pain, and darted behind Larana's legs, while Poochyena snickered with victory.

"Polka," Larana blushed, embarrassed by Polka's actions and began to reason with her Pokemon, "Please, try to fight."

Polka looked up at Larana's pleading face, and shakily stepped back onto the field, ready once again to fight.

"Alright Polka, try a tackle attack this time," Larana instructed her Pokemon and he took off at a bounding run.

Bounding as fast as he could, Polka made a Beedrill line for Poochyena and slammed point blank into her side, causing both of them to tumble over each other and fall into a pile. Poochyena was up almost immediately, and slammed Polka with a tackle attack herself. Instinctively, Polka used Defense Curl to defend himself, causing Poochyena to tire herself out as she endlessly tried to break through the defensive attack.

Larana watched, waiting for a moment to which Polka could give the finishing attack, thankful that he wasn't relying only on her commands. Poochyena stumbled back, panting heavily, but cocked back her head once more, preparing to howl again, and removing her eyes from Polka.

"Now Polka," Larana yelled seeing an opening, "Tackle her."

Polka, as quick as he could, uncurled from his protective ball and bounded forwards to strike Poochyena hard in the chest and neck just as she started to howl, causing it to be cut short abruptly with a guttural cough. Poochyena was now curled up on the ground, trying to regain the breath that had been knocked out of her while Polka bounced about happily, emitting soft squeaks of victory over his opponent.

Larana ignored him for the moment, as she snatched a spare pokeball from her belt and hurled it towards Poochyena, striking her on the side as she panted and coughed, converting into red energy that was sucked into the sphere. The pokeball, which had been hovering slightly in mid air while the energy was going into it, dropped to the ground and began to shake violently.

Both I and Larana watched the pokeball shake violently, hearts in throats, and I gave a relieved sigh when the pokeball stopped shaking and emitted the dull chime. Larana immediately gave a loud yell and dashed over to polka, snatching him up off the ground and hugging him.

"You done awesome Polka," Larana bounced about, hugging the overjoyed Fersies, "You won your first battle, and now we have a new friend."

"Congrats on the capture Larana," I called out to her as Wolf and Jakura trilled their congratulations too.

"Thanks 'Yunae," Larana smiled at me as she placed Polka back down on the ground and picking up the pokeball Poochyena now occupied.

Releasing Poochyena, it was to find that she had fallen unconscious, but was at least breathing steadily. Kida trotted over, dragging along with her Larana's heavy backpack. As Larana went about the task of healing her newest Pokemon, I paid more attention to my own Pokemon. Wolf had resumed his task of preening and Jakura had made his way over to a bush again to eat some more.

Several loud and angry barks alerted me and I turned back to Larana, to find that she was trying to keep a revived and fully healed Poochyena from attacking a cowering Polka. Wolf had sprung into full awareness and looked ready to take to the air, but Larana soon managed to quell her Pokemons anger and he calmed once more.

"What was up with that," I called out as Larana set Poochyena on the floor as Kida came bounding up and Polka stayed well away.

"I don't think she likes Polka to much right now," Larana said as she packed items she had taken out back into her bag, all the while keeping a wary eye on her Pokemon.

"Give her time, she'll get used to him," I shrugged as I picked up my own bag, "Maybe it's time we headed off," I suggested as I stood.

"Guess so, Dahk, Polka, back to your pokeballs," Larana picked their respective balls off her belt and returned them before settling her backpack on her shoulders.

"Dahk, nice name for a dark Pokemon," I commented before pulling Jakuras pokeball from my own belt and returning him to his sanctuary, "Ready to go Wolf."

"What about you Kida."

"Taaa."

"Syydri."

Both Pokemon yelled in agreement and began to lead us in a random direction together, Kida by paw, Wolf by wing. Laughing the two of us followed our lead Pokemon, trusting their judgment and letting them take control of the situation.

A couple of hours later, found Larana and myself gratefully stumbling out of the trees and onto the path cut through the forest, our beginning Pokemon stumbling out after us, mewing or trilling happily.

"Finally," I yelled out, not caring who heard, "The path."

"Thank Mew we finally found it," Larana panted.

"Thank Mew, more like thank all the Legendaries," I countered, "Now we can finally get on with actually getting somewhere."

"Can't we rest first," whined Larana, seriously out of breath, and not only her, but our Pokemon too.

"Fine, five minutes, then lets get going," I bounced about, excitement keeping me form feeling tired or out of breath.

"Never should have let you have that chocolate for lunch," grumbled Larana as I bounced about eagerly.

"So what, at least I'm happy," I snickered, before poking Larana in the middle of the forehead a few times, "More than I can say for you."

"Alright, that's it," Larana straightened up, glaring at me murderously, "Do that one more time, and I will hurt you."

"Do what," I feigned innocence, "Oh! You mean this," I poked her in the head a few more times, and then, when she balled her hands to fists, bolted down the path.

"Get back here," Larana yelled from far behind me, while Wolf took up his wing stride and flew alongside me.

"Yeah right," I called over my shoulder and kept running, laughing all the way.

TBC

Wow, this one took a while for me to write, dang writers block on the beginning of the chapter. Well anyways please read and review.

The new Pokemon mentioned in this chapter are © by me. Do not use them without permission.

Pokemon is © by Nintendo.


	7. Chapter 7

The Dezen Discovery

By LoneGrowlithe

Chapter Seven

Three days after setting out from Judan village, Larana, with her raven hair knotted and neglected, her clothes filthy, and myself, in very much the same state as she, although my cobalt blue hair was better off from being left as it was when we started, came trudging out of Nerouk Forest, the sky beginning to darken above us as we spied the lights of Fleet City in the distance.

Although I was tired and weary from walking, I suddenly felt a rush of renewed energy at the sight of the distant city which was only a walk over the plains away and happiness spread across my face as I turned to Larana.

"Finally, civilization," I spoke to her before breaking into a run and dashing down the quickly disappearing path as it was replaced by grass, Wolf, although weary himself, flew after me.

Looking behind me, I watched Larana, rapidly becoming smaller the further I got away from her, burst into laughter and run after me, a barely visible Kida bounding along after her, soon becoming lost from sight in the tall grass of the plain.

Larana, being taller than me, caught up eventually, Kida now held in her arms so she didn't become lost in the grass. Together we ran the whole length of the plains, and came to a panting halt just outside the city, where Larana let Kida down without fear of losing her as we had passed the worst of the tall grass.

"Wow, I didn't think I'd actually have the energy to run all the way," Larana panted, slightly pent over with her hands on her knees as she caught her breath.

"Well, finally seeing civilization can do that to you," I replied to her, leaning against a tree, one of few that dotted the plain, and caught my own breath.

Wolf sat perched on one of the branches of the tree I was leaning on, watching me and waiting for me to do something, but his flight having tired him, he panted as heavily as I. Kida however seemed right as rain, seeing as how Larana had carried her most of the way, and was trotting about sniffing at a few flowers that were growing nearby and batting a small butterfly that chose that moment to fly away.

"Should we go in then," Larana said as she straightened up, her breath regained.

"What do you think," I grinned at her as I pushed off the tree and Wolf took to the air.

Together we made our way into the city, the sky getting darker by the minute, yet still people rushed about getting last minute errands done, or heading home from work. We managed to stop one guy though, and he kindly gave us directions to the Pokemon centre which we gratefully thanked him for.

After using the directions the man had gave us, we soon found ourselves walking through the automated sliding door of the Pokemon centre. The lobby of the centre was furnished wish couches, tables, chairs, videophones and other things, and at the far wall, right in front of us, was a counter with a kind faced Nurse Joy sitting behind it.

A couple of other trainers, local and visitors milled around in the large lobby, some with their Pokemon, playing with them or caring for them, others without, waiting for their Pokemon to be returned to them after being healed.

Trying not to draw attention to ourselves, which was hard seeing as Kida started meowing loud greetings at anyone we went past and Wolf was flying back and forth between us and the front desk impatiently, we made our way to the front desk to meet with Nurse Joy.

"Ah, two more budding young trainers from Judan village I believe," Nurse Joy smiled at us over the counter.

"Uh, yeah," I replied hesitantly.

"Well, I expect that you must be tired from your trek through the forest, as were the other children who arrived earlier today, If you wish, you can bunk down in one of the rooms here at the Pokemon centre for the night, for free of course, while I heal your Pokemon," Nurse Joy suggested to us as I let out a loud yawn.

"I think we will thank you," Larana replied for the both of us and she pulled Polka and Dahks pokeballs of her belt while Kida nimbly jumped onto the counter, "Oh, just so you know, my Fersies and Poochyena don't get along to well at the moment."

"I understand," Nurse joy nodded as she placed Larana's pokeballs onto a tray and let Kida jump onto her shoulders before turning to me, "And you."

"Oh, right," I grinned sheepishly and pulled Jakura's pokeball from my belt and put it on the tray with Laranas' and Wolf flew over to flutter in the air by nurse joys head with a warning from me, "Wolf, behave."

"Sy," Wolf gave me a nod and flew over to follow Nurse Joy through a doorway behind the counter.

When the door slid open of its own accord, we heard the soft cries of Pokemon emitting from behind it, more prominent among those were the louder calls of those Pokemon usually known to be associated with Pokemon centers, such as Chansey and Blissey. After a couple of moments, Nurse Joy returned, without our Pokemon, but still seeming cheerful.

"Now, about a room," She smiled at us as she turned to the computer and typed on it, after a moment she reached over to something on the desk, picking it up, and then turned to us, handing us a key with the number fourteen on it, "Room number fourteen should be enough to accommodate you both," she smiled at us, "You should go get some rest, your Pokemon should be right as rain by morning."

"Thank you," Larana returned a smile to Nurse Joy, before grabbing me by the arm, and yanking me towards a hallway with a sign that marked Dorms.

"Hey let go," I protested as I tried to pull my arm from Larana's Pincer grip, it was starting to hurt.

"Fine," Larana grunted as she stopped and released my arm, "We're here anyway."

"Thank you," I said sarcastically as I rubbed the spot where her nails had dug into my skin, not enough to break it, but it still hurt.

Larana was too busy shoving the key into the lock to notice my pain before flinging the door open for us to see inside. It was a simple room, a white motif coloring the walls, with a set of bunk beds to one side, and a table and chairs on the other, and also a door which probably lead to the bathroom. Leaping into the room, Larana made a Beedrill line for the bathroom, taking her backpack with her, while I took my chance and snagged the top bunk.

Tossing one strap of my Blaze Bag over one of the support poles and leaving it there to dangle I hauled myself onto the bed and flopped down to rest, feeling at peace, I let the sounds of water pattering against tiles lull me to sleep.

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"Hurry up in there will you," Larana's shouting could hardly be heard through the running water.

Snickering to myself as I finished washing my hair, I shut off the water and dried off then dressed in my battle uniform, before taking my time to brush my hair, just to make Larana mad. Looking in the mirror as I ran my brush through my hair, determinably wavy thanks to being in a braid for several days, I noticed that my dark blue bangs had become a shade lighter than usual, probably the dye washing out, I figured that in a few weeks most of it would be gone.

After tying my hair back once again into a braid, I exited the bathroom and left it free for an angry and impatient Larana to access. As I waited for Larana, I walked over to my bag and withdrew the second guidebook I had received with my pack, as I had thought, this one was far more detailed than the one I had received with my letter and I found myself drawn into it after I sat down at the table in our room, losing track of time until suddenly I found Larana tapping on my shoulder.

"Well, now that I have drawn you from your book," Larana spoke up as she took the seat across from me, "What are our plans for today?"

"I was thinking that maybe we should stick around the city for today, and then continue on tomorrow," I suggested as I re-immersed myself in the guide book.

"What, but we should really keep on going towards the next gym," Larana insisted as she threw up her arms for emphasis.

"We were walking for three days straight, and I'm not used to it," I snapped at her and she sat down.

"You were on the school track team for crying out loud," Larana looked at me in surprise, "How could you not be used to exercise."

"I'm used to running," I argued, "And I may have been on the track team, but that was for short distance races, like one hundred meters or relay, I'm not used to walking for long periods of time."

"Fine, no need to rip my head of," Larana grumbled as she slouched backing her chair, averting her gaze from mine as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"So what about it, we stay here in Fleet for the day, maybe find some people to battle, and then continue on towards," I broke off my neutral tone and flicked towards the map section of the guidebook, it wasn't very high detailed, in fact, it didn't really look like it had been updated in years, but it did tell me the name of the city where the first gym was, "Terras City."

"Well, I guess maybe it's a good idea, and I guess we could both use a rest from walking," Larana caved in and agreed with me, "Alright, we'll stay for the day and leave tomorrow, but we better get some training in today, I want to make sure we can beat the gym."

"Awesome," I looked up at her and grinned, "So it's settled then, Rest and training today, travel, training and Pokemon searching tomorrow."

"Right," Larana agreed with me as she went over to her bag and withdrew a few potions and other healing items from her bag and slid them into her pockets before turning to me eagerly, "So, when do we start?"

Laughing at her enthusiasm, I closed the guidebook and put it back in my bag before pulling out items similar to what Larana had done and shoved them into my jeans pockets before pulling on my jacket after checking to make sure my pokedex was in the pocket and that I had Wolfs Blaze Ball on my belt.

"Well let's go then," I laughed as I headed for the door, leaving my Blaze Bag in the room, hanging forlornly from the bedpost.

Locking the door behind her, Larana followed me out into the lobby, her long black hair tied back into a ponytail, her usual fashion, trailing behind her as she dashed to catch up to me. When we entered the Lobby, we found that it wasn't as busy as it had been the night before, but there was still a myriad of activity about.

It was still pretty early in the morning though, only about eight, and some people would take the chance to sleep in, so I guessed we had some time to kill before we could start up with a few trainer battles.

"Why don't we get Kida, Wolf and our other Pokemon" Larana suggested as we walked over to the lobby couches.

"Best idea you've had today," I grinned at Larana before making my own suggestion, "Then let's get some breakfast."

"I think we'd all agree to that," Larana laughed as we made our way to the front desk.

When we reached the front desk, we were greeted by a Nurse Joy, although, we realized, that she wasn't the Nurse Joy that we had met the previous evening.

"Good morning girls," Nurse Joy smiled at us cheerily, "Now what may I do for the two of you."

"We'd like to retrieve our Pokemon," Larana asked after a moment's hesitation, "But um, you're not the Nurse Joy we saw last night."

"Oh, You must have met my sister then, we're twins you see, and we run the centre together, I work day shift and she works night shifts, that way we can keep the Pokemon centre running twenty-four seven," giggled Joy, "My sister probably wrote your Pokemon down to your corresponding room number, so if you could kindly tell me hat it is, I'll gladly retrieve your Pokemon for you."

"Oh! Our room was number fourteen," I told the Pokemon nurse.

Joy nodded, and picking up a few pieces of paper and shifting through them, "So those would be an Asydri, a Kitana, an Elervae, a Poochyena and a Fersies," She rattled off the species of our Pokemon and we nodded in affirmation, "Good, well my sister did the honor of giving your Pokemon full check ups, and from what she has written, they all appear to be in great health."

"That's good," Larana gave a sigh of relief, who had tensed up when Joy had mentioned the full checkups her sister had given our Pokemon.

"Well, I expect your wanting your Pokemon so I'll just go fetch them for you," Joy smiled as she stood up and moved into the back room and came back a moment later with a tray holding three pokeballs, Kida on her shoulder and Wolf flying along behind.

Upon spotting us, our beginning Pokemon came forwards and deposited themselves in our arms, trilling or mewing happily in greeting. I myself gave Wolf a hug before letting him jump up on my shoulder while I collected Jakuras bonker sized pokeball and placed it on my belt next to the Blaze Ball.

"Why don't we go get some breakfast, hey Wolf," I suggested to the flaming bird.

"Syyyyydri," Wolf crooned in delight as he rubbed his cheek against mine in a show of affection.

Kida seemed to be thinking about food to, because she started up the usual meows she made whenever she was hungry at the mention of it.

"Guess they're both hungry," commented Larana with a smile.

"Then what are we waiting for, to the cafeteria," I intoned and jogged over to the doorways that led to the cafeteria built into the Pokemon centre.

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A large park set off to one side of Fleet city was where we headed after we had eaten breakfast in the Pokemon centers cafeteria, which thankfully served trainers for free. The park itself was large, but not as large as the Battle Park that was back in Kerdan, with bright green grass cropped short and a small set of swings and other playground items set off to one side, leaving the rest as grass and sparse trees.

I figured that it unanimously was the meeting place for most trainers, local and visiting, to hold Pokemon battles, as upon arrival there was more than one Pokemon battle going on. Eagerly, the two of us and our Pokemon made our way over to where some people milled about, probably looking for trainers to battle.

But before I could burst my way into the group to find someone I could challenge, I heard someone call out behind me.

"Well lookie here, it's the Raticate," A familiar voice sneered somewhere off to my right.

My attention grabbed, I turned my face to spot a sneering Wesley, and a laughing Keith. Just spotting them made my anger flare, Not because of what they had said just now, but because I remembered what they had said to me back in Judan.

"And all I see is a tag along Muk and a fat Swalot," I shot back before making to move off.

"Well then Raticate, how's about a Pokemon battle, with stakes," Wesley offered before I got the chance to walk away.

"How high the stakes," I asked, interested as Wolf, who was perched on my shoulder, perked up at the prospect of a battle.

"Twenty dollars, which means forty to the victor," suggested Wesley.

"Fine, I take your challenge," I accepted, only to have Larana intervene.

"Sayunae, we can't just flaunt money about, we have to conserve," Larana interjected and Kida mewed her agreement.

"Its only twenty Larana, and anyway, stakes battles is how you earn more money to go off right, if we win, we have an extra twenty to spend," I told her, ignoring Wesley for the time being.

"Fine," Larana agreed after a moment of contemplation, "Have your battle."

"Good," I smiled at her before turning my attention back to an irritated Wesley, "One on One alright with you Swalot."

"Its fine," He nodded, "but let's make it my starter Pokemon versus your starter Pokemon."

"Alright then," I nodded, "My Asydri, versus your Charmander."

"Lets get this started then Raticate."

"Let's."

We moved off of the meeting area so to say and onto the field to find a spot to battle. Larana, Keith and others people followed to watch the battle that was about to begin, I could only hope that I would win.

TBC

A bit of writers block at some points in this chapter, but I worked em out eventually, Thanks to all those who have reviewed, glad to hear you like my story. Hope you enjoy this new chappie, please read and review :D

The new Pokemon mentioned in this chapter are © by me. Do not use them without permission.

Pokemon is © by Nintendo.


	8. Chapter 8

The Dezen Discovery

By LoneGrowlithe

Chapter Eight

I glared venomously at the smoke haired boy who stood at the opposite end of our make believe battle field, a minimized pokeball ready in his hands. Wolf was perched on my shoulder, as serious as I was about this battle; he had not been very approving of Wesley's nickname for me.

"Time to battle then Raticate," sneered Wesley from across the field as he maximized the pokeball to its full size.

"Ladies first," I called out to the boy smugly, causing the small crowd that had gathered around us to snicker.

A look of anger crossed Wesley's face before he tossed his pokeball, colored an orange red, onto the field. To emerge from it was a lizard like Pokemon, standing firmly with its two feet, equipped with sharp claws, on the ground. It struck the air with one hand curled into a fist, before settling into an attack position, its arms in front of it raised slightly, with claws bared. A long tail spread out behind it, tipped off with a blazing flame, contrasting well with its orange scales and white stomach.

The Charmander seemed eager to battle, waiting patiently for its opponent to arrive.

"My pokemon is my Charmander, Zukie," announced Wesley as he stood calmly.

"Wolf, you're up," I spoke to the eternally ablaze bird on my shoulder.

Wolf gave me a nod and an encouraging croon before leaping off my shoulder to land on the battlefield in front of Zukie.

"Wolf, who ever heard of someone naming a bird Pokemon Wolf," Wesley laughed having heard my choice of name for my Pokemon.

"Well, now you have Swalot," I called out, "So lets get started already."

"Fine, Zukie, Ember," called Wesley.

Zukie's reaction was fast, in one fluent motion, she leapt forwards, the flame on her tail blazing, and turned mid-air, sending the end of her tail flinging right for Wolf. Wolf however, had enough sense to take off before the hit landed, soaring high above Zukie as she landed on her feet; it had been a near miss however.

"Awesome call Wolf! Now, charge her with a Tackle attack."

Wolf nodded in affirmation of my order, and then swooped down, aiming right for the solitary Charmander, only to collide painfully with her tail as she brought it up in another ember attack; neither however escaped damage, as Wolf, squawking in surprise, instinctively raked out with his talons, catching Zukies retreating tail with them.

Wolf flew higher into the air, while Zukie grabbed her tail and looked at the minute scratches Wolf had inflicted, before releasing it and glaring up at the bird above her, anger causing fire in her eyes.

"Zukie, forget the scratches," called out Wesley, "Get him with your own scratch attack when he gets close."

"Char," Zukie nodded at her trainers order, and cast a wary eye on Wolf, waiting for him to attack.

I grinned, an idea forming in my mind, and then shouted out my own commands, "Wolf fly in low and then use Leer, followed up with an Ember attack."

Wolf looked at me unsurely, but upon seeing the grin on my face, gained confidence and dived through the air, until he was skimming just above the ground, making a direct Beedrill line for Zukie. As he neared her, his eyes suddenly took on an ethereal glow, as he bore down on her. Zukie gave a shriek of fright, and forgetting her orders, shirked away as Wolf got nearer.

At the last minute, his eyes losing their glowing feature, Wolf veered upwards sharply, and with a flick of his tail, embers flew off, sparking painfully into Zukie's face. Zukie shrieked again, clawing at the burning embers on her face as if it were killing her while Wolf snickered as he flew in slow circles above her.

"Zukie, calm down," Wesley called out to his overreacting Charmander, "Use your growl attack to slow him down, and then try another Scratch attack."

Zukie, calming down, looked up at Wolf, and suddenly released a resounding rumble from deep in her throat, which caused Wolf to falter in the air as it reached his ears, dipping low to the ground. Satisfied, Zukie leapt forwards, and raked her claws along Wolf's right wing, causing him to disdainfully crash into the ground.

I watched as Zukie stood victoriously over Wolf, thinking the battle won, but I sighed in relief as Wolf somehow managed to stagger to his feet after meeting the ground, and turned to caw at Zukie defiantly before lifting into the air again.

"Alright Wolf," I cheered as my Asydri soared low above the battlefield, but high enough to stay out of Zukie's jumping range, "Now, use the same attack you did before."

"Zukie, watch out for it, close your eyes before he uses Leer," Wesley countered my order even as Wolf dipped and soared just above the ground.

Zukie nodded, and as Wolf neared, his eyes beginning to glow anew, she shut her eyes, making the attack worthless. Acting quickly, I shouted out a change of commands.

"Forget the attack Wolf; instead go in for a full speed tackle."

His eyes dimmed and the glow about them died, and Wolf began to flap his Wings harder and faster, and before Wesley could utter a word, he slammed into Zukie, her eyes still closed, causing her to cry out in surprise as the two of them tumbled over each other.

I waited as the two stumbled to their feet, just inches from each other, caught in a glaring contest, before suddenly, Zukie leapt forwards, her blazing tail flaring as she brought it down, ready to crash into Wolf's side, only to find she hit nothing, as Wolf nimbly hopped out of striking distance before giving a mighty pump of his wings, and slamming into Zukie once more, sending them tumbling again.

The two of them staggered to their feet again, glaring holes into each other again, both panting but not letting their guard down, before finally, Zukie seemed to reach the end of her tether, and closed her eyes and collapsed, leaving Wolf the only one standing, albeit barely.

A moment of silence followed, before suddenly I let out a whooping yell and ran forwards picking a weary Wolf up into my arms and hugging him gently as the crowd themselves cheered for the victor, although there was the undertone of boo's coming from Keith.

"Alright Wolf, you did it," I praised as I hugged him; "You won your first trainer battle."

"Asyyy," Wolf crooned back to me softly, happiness evident in his tired voice.

I heard some muttering behind be, and I turned just in time to see Wesley telling his Charmander a job well done before returning her to her pokeball and then turning to me.

"You may have won this time," he glowered as he bitterly handed me a twenty dollar note for winning, "But don't expect to next time."

With that, he walked off, Keith following him after he aimed a disapproving glare in my direction. I glared at their retreating backs before turning my full attention to the exhausted Asydri in my arms, while Larana came bounding up beside me.

"That was an awesome battle Sayunae, you really socked it to him," Larana congratulated as I clumsily stuffed the twenty into my pocket while still trying to keep a hold of Wolf's form which had gone limp from his exhaustion.

"Thanks 'Rana," I smiled at her as I set Wolf down on the ground, Kida bounding up to meet him, and kneeled next to him after fishing a potion out of my pocket, "But It was Wolf who done all the work, not me."

"Well, I guess so," smiled Larana before she turned to Wolf and scratched the top of his head affectionately, "You did great Wolf, way to show that Charmander."

"Asydri," Wolf chirruped in delight before giving a small wince as I applied potion to the spots Zukie's claws had nicked him, although the scratches themselves were barely visible under his flames and feathers.

"There we go," I announced as I put the half empty bottle of potion back in my pocket, "That should keep you right as rain 'til we get to the Pokemon centre to get you properly healed."

"I have a feeling we'll be visiting the Pokemon centre a fair bit today," Larana speculated as Wolf managed to flutter up into the air and fly around a bit before settling into a rhythmic pattern as we began to trek towards the Pokemon centre.

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After heading to the Pokemon centre to get Wolf healed and rested up a bit, we were once again out at the park, looking for new challenges to be had. Larana herself was more eager than I was, Wolf and I having participated in a battle already, she was hoping for the next challenge.

There were considerably more people at the park when we arrived, young children off of school playing on the swings and other activities the park provided, or settling down to watch the still raging Pokemon battles that continued. A couple of parents were present also, but the majority was still the trainers, milling around the Battle Centre as we'd heard someone mutter as we headed over.

With Kida held securely in her arms, to prevent the mischievous cat from causing trouble, Larana delved into the crowd of trainers, looking for someone to challenge. I decided to wait, and I went over to a nearby bench and sat down, while Wolf, who had been soaring high in the air above, came down and perched himself on the back rest of the bench, looking around in curiosity at all the people milling about.

I wasn't waiting long before Larana emerged from the crowd again, this time followed by two girls. What surprised me though was that the girls were almost completely identical, before I abruptly recognized them as the twins from the presentation ceremony in Judan village.

Both of them had shoulder length dark brown hair, dropped loose so that it spilled about their heads. They're eyes were different shades of blue, one light, one dark and they both had fair skin and complexion. Their clothes however were different, although both wore jeans, their tops were different. The one with the lighter eyes had a purple shirt on with small red dots spelling Kit and was a bit shorter than her sibling, while the other had a black shirt, this time with yellow dots spelling Kat.

"Hey 'Yunae, look who I found," Larana grinned as she at the twins walked over.

"Hello," I gave a friendly wave as they approached, and the twins waved back.

"I remember you," spoke up the one with lighter eyes, "We saw you at the ceremony, you got Asydri as I recall."

"Yeah, I did," I smiled at her before indicating to Wolf who was perched behind and beside me, "Meet Wolf."

Wolf, suddenly realizing he was being introduced, gave a delighted chirp of greeting at the twins and flew up to them to inspect them, causing the two burst into light peals of laughter.

"Pleasure," joked the darker eyed as she gave Wolf a small pat on the head before turning to me, "I'm Kat, Course, you can probably tell," she introduced herself before indicating to her T-shirt.

"And I gather your Kit," I joked as I turned to the other.

"You got it," she giggled.

"Your friend here tells us she's looking for a battle," Kit spoke up with an indication to Larana, "But me and Kat only fight in double battles."

"Double battles!" I voiced, looking at them, "All the time."

"Not all the time," grinned Kit, "But if we're in trainer battles or gym battles we will. We just so happen to like to do everything together."

"So how about it, you want to fight with Larana in a double battle," asked Kat eagerly.

"I dunno, what d'you think Wolf, are you up for another battle," I asked him as he flew around us all.

Wolf chirped, and nodded his head eagerly before flying over to the grassy area of the park.

"I'll take that as a yes," I grinned and we all headed after Wolf who had found us a nice battle area.

"We saw your battle with Wesley," commented Kat as we walked.

"Very well done on it too," said Kit, "So how about we apply those same rules to our battle, we each put, say about thirty, into the stakes pot, and we all use our starter Pokemon."

"I'm up for it," said Kat.

"Well, Kida is itching to battle, so why not," grinned Larana, and Kida agreed with a full heated meow.

"Well then, looks like I'm outnumbered," I snickered, "Woof!"

"What!" everyone exclaimed and looked at me strangely.

"Woof!" I repeated and laughing, ran over to where Wolf was waiting.

"Does she always do that," I heard Kit comment to Larana from somewhere behind me.

"As long as I've known her," was Larana's faint reply.

Soon enough, we stood ready to fight, me and Larana on one side of the field, Kida and Wolf taking their positions on the space in front of us, while across the other end, Kit and Kat stood close together, before both pulled out their pokeballs containing the Pokemon they were going to use.

Kit, rolling in her hand a deep blue pokeball, flung it onto the field and the Pokemon inside burst forth to stand in front of Kida.

It was a long cerulean blue crocodile Pokemon, although its tail seemed to be the longest part of its body. It was built thick, with armored skin and large muscles in its rather short legs to hold it up. The tail, while long was equally thick. Running along the course of its spine were bright green spikes, traveling right down till one ended the tip of the tail, and two spikes set into its shoulders, sharp as the ones down its spine. Claws ended each of its three toes, sharp and ominous looking. It looked to be about a foot or two high, and once it had finished materializing from the white energy, it yawned, revealing a mouth full of razor teeth, before setting its yellow eyes with a steely gaze on Kida.

"My Pokemon is Wave," called Kit with a grin on her face.

Now its was Kat's turn, in one fluent motion, she pulled a bright green pokeball from her belt, and tossed it into the battle field and released her Pokemon before the ball deftly returned to her hand.

Kat's Pokemon was not much different from a Charmander, in fact, if it wasn't for some noticeable differences, I would have though it one. Her Pokemon was green, a lovely light emerald which covered most of its body except for its stomach, which was a darker shade of green, akin to that of its pokeball. The end of its tail lacked the flame Charmander had; instead, the flame was replaced by a flower bulb, as of yet unopened, and splashed a color of deep green.

From its back sprouted two deep green fern leaves, small in comparison, but looking much like they could have been wings for which it could fly with, save the fact they had hardly a chance of lifting the rather large Pokemon off the ground. Around the Pokemons wrists and ankles, were circlets of small deep green dots.

"My Pokemon is Leaf," Kat vastly repeated her sister's sentence, changing only the name of her Pokemon.

Digging into my jacket pocket, I pulled out my blaze colored pokedex and pointed it at Wave first.

"Cascardron the small crocodile Pokemon

Cascardron is commonly used as one of the starting Pokemon for beginning trainers in the Dezen region. While temperamental, it can be a fiercely loyal companion, determined to win any battle.

Pokemon Gender: Male

Pokemon size: 1'07"

Pokemon Type: Water," The pokedex beeped out before I turned it towards Leaf.

"Leafius the Bud lizard Pokemon

Leafius is commonly the grass beginning Pokemon of the region Dezen. Leafius are solitary creatures, living along and away from their evolved forms family groups, although groups of wild Leafius form bands and care for each other.

Pokemon gender: Female

Pokemon size: 2'01

Pokemon type: Grass."

Wolf, I figured, would do alright against Leaf, but it was Wave that was going to cause a problem, even if Wolf managed to stay out striking range of his tail, claws and jaws, if Wave knew Water gun or another attack to that effect, Wolf was a goner if he got hit. Kida seemed eager enough to fight however and was jumping around in a small pattern while still keeping her eyes on the opponent.

"Alright then, I'll start," Larana suddenly spoke, breaking the tension that hung like a thick cloud, "Kida, tackle attack on Wave."

Kida, ceasing her pattern, leapt forwards, closing the distance between her and Wave quickly. Wolf had taken to the air as Leaf, of her own accord, leapt forwards, aiming a scratch attack where he had been.

"Good one Leaf, but forget him, go for the cat," called out Kat and Leaf changed direction and charge for Kida.

"Wolf, follow her, use ember when you can."

"Wave, use your Water gun on the ground in front of you, then aim it for the Asydri."

Wave, reacting quickly, exhaled a large amount of water on the grass and dirt, making it slippery and muddy, causing Kida to slip and slide once she hit it, although still heading for Wave, who nimbly stepped out of the way, causing Kida to go sliding past him, before turning his head, blasted a jet of water at Wolf, who has been in hot pursuit of Leaf, who had leapt over the soggy spot of the field, and was scratching at a dodging Kida.

Wolf had to suddenly bank left, as he narrowly missed the blast of water that came shooting at him, but he still continued his trajectory path towards Leaf, undeterred by the Water guns being fired at him in rapid succession.

"Leaf, watch out, the Asydri is coming up," Kat called out a warning.

"Kida, keep him there."

"Wave, defensive position, guard Leaf's back."

To my astonishment, the two Pokemon belonging to the twins seemed to be able to work in complete unison. Wave, acting quickly, managed a quick dash along the field, until he was standing at Leaf's back, guarding her from any attack from behind, while Leaf was free to slash away at Kida as she pleased. A feeling of horror overcame me as Wolf got nearer, he wasn't going to be able to attack Leaf so easy now that Wave was her defender.

"Wolf, get out of there, its no use," I yelled, as Wave launches another jet of water from his mouth.

Wolf steered left, dodging the majority of the attack, but squawked out in surprise and pain as water seared the flames of his tail. The sudden attack to his tail caused Wolf to temporarily steer out of control, this action distracted Kida enough that Leaf was able to land a few scratch attacks on her. Wolf regained his flight pattern, but now having seen a flaw, changed it so that it was erratic and so that there wasn't as much of a chance for Wave to hit him again.

"Awesome Wave, keep you position."

"Kida, change of plans, scratch attack on Wave."

"Leaf, defend Wave."

This was insane, if we tried to attack from one angle, the other defended, and vice versa if we tried the other way. I had to think of something.

"Wolf, when Kida attacks Wave, use Ember on Leaf," I bellowed out my orders, hoping they would work.

Kida, taking her chance, leapt forwards, barreling towards Leaf, while Wolf came flying in from above.

"Wave, Water Gun on Wolf."

"Leaf, Use Growl."

Kat and Kit called out their counter orders. Kida had by that time, already slunk past an unsuspecting Leaf as she kept her eyes to the sky for Wolf's attack, leaving her free to leap onto Wave's back and dig in her claws. Wave at that moment had been about to launch a Water Gun attack at Wolf, but in his surprise and confusion that he was being attacked, the jet of compressed water slammed into the ground in front of him, sending up a spray of mud and grass.

Wolf, his way clear, then swooped down on Leaf, and then pulled up sharply, with his signature flick of his tail, sending the embers flying for the grass type. Leaf, whom had been distracted slightly by her teams mates plight, looked up, preparing to execute her Growl attack, just as the embers came flying and seared into her back, setting her leaves ablaze.

Leaf shrieked, while Wave somehow managed to roll onto his back, and thus dislodging Kida who had held a firm grip with her claws as he gamboled around. Wave, once free of his rider, jumped over to where Leaf was, trying vainly to put out the flames that were engulfing her leaves, with ease, he blasted a Water gun onto the flaming appendages, thus squandering the flames and putting Leaf at a temporary ease.

Once the temporary Hazard was dealt with, Leaf, somewhat scorched and looking rather worn, and Wave, small scratches barely visible on the tough hide of his back, stood ready to fight once more. Wolf, flying above the battlefield as was his custom, and Kida, panting but still eager to continue, were also ready to attack.

"Wave, Water gun barrage on Wolf."

"Leaf, Vine Whip on Kida, keep her from attacking."

"Wolf, use Tackle on Wave," I ordered, my throat dry from anticipation, "But stay out of the way of his attacks."

"Kida, uh, use Sand-attack," Larana ordered, nervousness in her voice.

Wave, standing firm beside his partner, began to well up his reserves of water and began firing Water Guns in rapid succession towards Wolf who was closing in by the second. Leaf, digging her clawed feet into the ground, threw up her arms, and the circlet of green dots around her wrist suddenly came to life, vines growing from them at a rapid speed as the headed for a nearby Kida. Kida, now as nervous as Larana, whirled around and began to kick up dirt and clumps of grass, sending them flying towards the two opponents in hopes of blinding them.

But there was no such luck to be had, Leaf just simply closed her eyes at the oncoming barrage and after it had settled, continue her vines on their trajectory path, and thus wrapping them around Kida's legs and hauling her into the air to dangle upside down.

A loud pain filled squawk attracted my attention from Kida's predicament, and I turned in time to see Wolf begin to plummet through the air after being nailed by one of Wave's Water gun attacks.

I waited a bare moment, before it became obvious he was unconscious, and in one swift movement, I had yanked his Blaze ball from my belt, and he was being into red energy and then absorbed into the ball before he could make contact with the ground.

"Looks like you're on your own," I mumbled to Larana as I looked mournfully at Wolf's ball, "You done good Wolf, the best you could," I whispered to it before minimizing it to its smaller stature, an orb the same size as a bonker, and clipped it to my belt.

Larana, as nervous as ever now that she was in the battle alone, seemed frozen to the spot, as Wave turned towards Kida, and waited for his trainers command. Leaf still had Kida dangling by her paws, her furry ruffs askew as she struggled vainly to get free.

"Kida, bite the vines to get Leaf to let go," Larana called out and Kida complied, sinking her teeth into the nearest vine she could access, it wasn't really a bite attack, but still, it was effective.

Leaf squealed in pain and retracted all her vines, blowing gently on the one that had been bitten, while Wave moved in to defend her. Kida had landed deftly on her feet when Leaf had dropped her, as most cats usually did, and was standing ready to fight, even though it seemed pointless.

"Kida, Try to land a Tackle attack on Leaf," Larana called out nervously and desperately.

Kida nodded, and bolted forwards, as a blast of water hit where she had once been. She ran in a zigzag pattern, not giving any quarters to where she could be hit, eventually, she drove her way past Wave, and slammed point blank into Leafs injured back, causing the lizard Pokemon to lose her balance and fall forwards onto the ground before dashing away, to avoid the tail Wave swiped at her.

Leaf staggered to her feet, only to fall again, and this time not get up. Kat sighed, and pulling Leafs pokeball from her belt, withdrew the downed grass type to its sanctuary, leaving now only two combatants on the field, one on each side.

"Wave, Tackle attack."

"You too Kida."

The two Pokemon, obeying their trainer's orders, charge towards each other, gaining momentum with every step. Wave, although his legs were stubby, was able to pick up a reasonable amount of speed, and rammed full force into Kida, his much larger bulk providing a more effective Tackle, and sending Kida flying to crash into the ground not far away. She skidded for a bit before trying to get to her feet then collapsing, and stilled, unmoving except for the shallow rises and falls of her chest.

With a defeated sigh, Larana pulled out Kida's pokeball and the cat Pokemon was returned, while Kit and Kat both congratulated Wave on a job well done.

"Looks like we lost," Larana concluded as she walked up to stand next to me.

"So what, everyone has to lose sometime, right," was my reply with a shrug of my shoulder, before I started to walk over to where Kit, Kat and Wave were.

"Good battle," Kit smiled as I approached holding out her hand for me to shake.

"You were the better party though," I grinned as I shook her hand.

"Thanks," Giggled Kit as she put a delighted Wave in his pokeball.

"It was an awesome battle though," Larana mentioned as she sifted through the wallet we kept our money in and handed the twins sixty dollars while bowing serenely, joking around by pretending to be a waiter or butler, "Your winnings Master."

Kat laughed as she took the money from Larana and slotted it in her own pocket "Maybe we can have another battle sometime."

"Maybe, but we'll be stronger next time, guaranteed," I grinned.

"Looking forwards to it then," Kit replied with as big a grin as mine.

"Sayunae, we should head to the Pokemon centre, Wolf and Kida need to be healed," Larana suggested and I nodded.

"We'll come with it," volunteered Kat, "We'll be heading over there anyway."

"Sure," I smiled at them.

The two smiled back and along with Larana we began to head towards the Pokemon centre, falling into a conversation and getting to know each other as we walked.

TBC

Okay, just a chapter full of battles and such, I've finally introduced Leafius and Cascardron into the fic, now Zaep is the only one to do :D

The new pokemon mentioned in this chapter are © by me. Do not use them without permission.

Pokemon is © by Nintendo.


	9. Chapter 9

The Dezen Discovery

By LoneGrowlithe

Chapter Nine

I wandered through the long grass of the plains confidently, with Wolf perched on my shoulder. I was outside of Fleet city, in the surrounding plains that were aptly named the Ailras plains. I didn't know where Larana was, but that was mainly because we had split up to search the large plains for more Pokemon to catch.

The day before had been spent staying in the city, which we had used in its entirety to both relax and battle our Pokemon with other trainers. Although we had planned to leave today however, we had decided this morning that we would postpone leaving until the afternoon, giving us both a chance to hopefully get some new additions to our teams before we left.

"See anything Wolf," I asked my Pokemon lightly, as he had better eyes than I did.

Wolf shook his head, but took flight and sailed over me, keeping his sharp eyes to the ground, searching for any sign of Pokemon. I myself looked around just as eagerly, we had been searching for the better part of the morning, and despite a few glances of Pokemon scurrying about in the overgrown plains, I had yet to catch any.

As Wolf flew around my mind wandered to Larana as I wondered if she had caught any Pokemon. During my contemplations however, Wolf appeared to have spotted something, and gained my attention by alerting me with a loud screech, right before he swooped down to tackle whatever he had found.

I rushed over as my Pokemon disappeared below the grass and away from sight, but I heard the sounds of a scuffle, and I saw movement of grass as other Pokemon dashed deftly away from harm. Reaching the spot where Wolf had disappeared from sight, I found him towering over a frightened Fersies, its fluffy tail held deftly in his talons as he tried not to let it escape with its comrades.

"Awesome Wolf," I congratulated him on keeping the rabbit Pokemon from escaping, "Now, we'll let Jakura handle this one."

Wolf scowled slightly, but relented and released the Fersies tail and jumped into the air, circling low, so he would easily be able to capture it if it made to escape.

Grinning at the prospect of a new Pokemon to add to my team, I tore Jakura's pokeball from my belt and lobbed it to the battle field. My wormy bug Pokemon appeared, his mingled blue and green hues catching the sun. Jakura, upon seeing his opponent, hissed and arched his back, ready to fight.

"Alright Jakura, start this off with string shot," I commanded.

Jakura complied quickly, quickly spitting a glob of sticky thread from his mouth, which the Fersies tried vainly to avoid but it tangled about its legs, causing the rabbit Pokemon to fall forwards onto its face. It scrambled to its entangled feet as best it could and quickly chewed through the sticky thread, before aiming to make a quick escape.

The escape attempt was thwarted however, as Wolf dropped down in front of the fleeing Pokemon and gave a flap of his wings as he flicked up dirt with his talons, causing a small dust storm to pick up and stop the Fersies in its tracks. Jakura then came waddling up behind and tackled the unsuspecting opponent.

Squeaking in alarm, the Fersies tackled Jakura back and made to run again, only to be stopped once more by Wolf and his sand-attack.

"Wolf, your doing great, you are too Jakura, lets try to beat it down a bit more, Tackle," I praised my Pokemon before ordering my next attack.

Jakura, with a nod of his spiked head, charged for Fersies again, only to miss as the rabbit ducked to the side before curling into a defensive ball, just before Jakura tackled it again.

Jakura continued to tackle the tightly curled ball cream and brown fur, but it was a fruitless attempt.

"Jakura, enough, it won't work," I called out to him, stopping his vain attempts to do damage to his opponent, "Scare it out with screech."

Jakura quickly emitted a loud screeching sound from his mouth, so loud I had to clamp my hands over my ears as the Fersies was shocked out of its protective ball and slammed in the stomach by Jakura's next tackle attack. Fersies stumbled back a bit, and once more made to escape; only to be tangled up in the Stringshot Jakura had fired at its legs.

"Awesome work Jakura," I congratulated as he tied up the Fersies some more.

I pulled an empty pokeball from my belt and Jakura cut off his attack as I lobbed it at the struggling Fersies. The ball struck the Fersies deftly on the head and it was then absorbed into the ball. Once the Pokemon was secured inside the capture device, it began to rock wildly, and bounced around a little too. I waited anxiously, as did Wolf and Jakura, the three of us watching the rocking pokeball in suspense.

I let out a loud victorious whoop when the pokeball stilled and emitted its common chime when a Pokemon had been successfully captured. Catching Wolf and Jakura up in my arms, I gave the both of them a crushing hug.

"You did great guys, you especially Jakura," I praised them as I put them down on the ground.

Wolf trilled happily at my praises and lifting into the air, done a little dance which made me laugh as I went over to collect the now full pokeball. Jakura however, didn't act happy at all, instead, he just lay down on the ground and didn't move. Concerned I walked over to him, absentmindedly clipping Fersies pokeball to my belt.

"Hey Jakura," I asked softly, "Something wrong buddy."

He didn't answer, a just continued to lie there, and then as I gave him a pat, a couple of his spikes broke off as my hand passed them. My heart leapt into my throat as I held the now broken off spikes in my hand, but my panic then died when Jakura was enveloped by a vibrant hue of white energy and I realized that he was evolving to his next stage.

When the glow died down, where had once been a vibrantly colored caterpillar, was now a dull colored cocoon. His shape was almost entirely different to when he had been an Elervae. Jakura lay on the stomach of his hard shell. Almost all of his spikes had broken off, leaving only a single pair on the top of his head. He wasn't as long as his previous form, most of it compacted into the shell, but was much larger in size, his round head had become pointed at the nose and his tail spike was now nothing more than a nub.

Pulling out my pokedex, I pointed it at Jakura's new form, to find out what exactly he had become.

"Ecorae the cocoon Pokemon

The hard shelled evolution of Elervae, the Pokemon resides inside whilst changing into its final form. It remains highly immobile until it finishes growing inside the shell and evolves into its final form Dreiraen. The evolution process can take up to two to three weeks.

Current attacks: Tackle, String Shot, Screech, Harden," The pokedex finished and I looked at Jakura while slotting the pokedex back in my pocket.

"Looks like you won't be battling for quite a while little buddy," I commented as I lifted Jakura, much heavier now than when he had been an Elervae, into my arms, "or moving for that matter. Guess I should put you back in your pokeball then."

"Rae," Jakura rasped in a now husky voice compared to the harsh shrieks he had before.

Pulling the appropriate pokeball from my belt I returned him to his pokeball and relieved my arms of his weight, and returned it to my belt before collecting Fersies pokeball and sending out the new addition to my team.

Materializing in front of me, I found that it was still tangled in Jakura's Stringshot. Rolling my eyes with a smile on my face, I bent down to it and helped untangle it from the sticky thread. Once untangled however, the Pokemon was still wary and jumped away from me. Sighing I began to speak to it.

"Hey don't be afraid," I spoke in a soft and soothing tone, "I'm your trainer now, there's no need to be scared of me, or Wolf."

Wolf chirped his agreement and Fersies cautiously walked forwards to sniff my outstretched hand. As it did so, I pulled my pokedex from my pocket and pointed it a Fersies to get a list of its stats so I could appropriately name it.

"Fersies the young rabbit Pokemon

Fersies are highly common Pokemon vastly populating the plains areas of Dezen. They are more inclined to flee from battle rather than fight.

Pokemon gender: Female

Pokemon size: 1'04"

Pokemon type: Normal

Attacks learnt: Tackle, defense curl, growl."

"Oooh, a girl, looks like you'll be the first one caught into this little team," I smiled, "And you'll need a name, just like Wolf and Jakura."

Fersies looked up at me innocently as I scratched her behind the ears. I racked my brain for a name, before deciding on one that she may like.

"How do you like the name Araina," I asked her politely.

The cream and brown spotted Pokemon looked at me a moment, pondering my choice of name for her, before giving an accepting nod.

"Awesome," I smiled and picked her up into my arms, "Welcome to the team Araina."

Araina squeaked softly and cuddle up in my arms, content and happy. Smiling, I let her be and looked up to Wolf who was winging rapid circles above me.

"You're going to make yourself dizzy doing that," I smirked up at him.

Wolf just chirped and stopped his continuous circles, only to falter in the air and nearly crash into the ground, then landing in a rather undignified manner before staggering around dizzily.

"Looks like I told you too late," I commented as Wolf fell backwards onto his back and Araina let lose a flurry of chattering giggles, "Come on silly, let's go see if we can find Larana wherever she is."

Wolf chirped, shaking off his dizziness as best he could, before making it into the air again and then landing on my shoulder.

"Sure, hitch a ride," I joked at him before I started walking in the general direction of Fleet city, which sat just across the river, my main goal however was to find Larana.

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I crouched low in the grass near the small expanse of trees, in which several species of lively looking bird Pokemon chattered in apparent distaste for one another. There was a large array of them, and it seemed to be over some dispute over the trees. There were Pidgey and Spearow, more than a few attacking each other voraciously, and a couple of Taillow in the mix.

There was also a minimal flock of small bird Pokemon colored, their feather a shade of intermingling bright and dark blues. Three fairly long ribbon like tails made up their tails, beginning in color with a light blue, before darkening into a deeper shade at the tips. A spiky crest of feathers crowned its head, shaded similarly to the tail feathers, the wings were shaded the same, while the rest of its body was a bright blue. Stout legs and a curved beak were shaded a catching yellow, yet while eye colors varied, violet seemed to be commonplace.

Kida crouched silently by my side, her usual loud and noisy countenance had changed to make her a silent and stealthy hunter. I was eying those blue birds, but as of yet didn't know what they were. I brushed a stray wisp of black hair from my face before reaching into my pocket and pulling out my creamy colored pokedex. Setting it down on a low enough sound setting so it wouldn't alert the bird Pokemon to my presence, I pointed it at each bird Pokemon in turn.

"Pidgey the small pigeon Pokemon

Commonplace to most regions, Pidgey are highly adaptable Pokemon, although preferring to stay in fielded areas

Pokemon type: Normal/Flying."

"Spearow the tiny bird Pokemon

Voracious birds, they are hardy fighters and seldom give up battles, preferring to fight until the end. Are known to sometimes bullying weaker bird Pokemon into submission.

Pokemon Type: Normal/Flying."

"Taillow the tiny swallow Pokemon

Bug Pokemon, such as Caterpie, Wurmple, Elervae and Weedle, among other bug Pokemon, are main supplements of a wild Taillows diet, trained Taillows however seldom eat bug Pokemon.

Pokemon Type: Normal/flying."

"Coraket the chatter bird Pokemon

First discovered in the Dezen region, Coraket are highly social Pokemon, and are commonly referred to as the copycat Pokemon because over time they begin to copy words they have heard humans say regularly. Well trained Coraket are known to carry on a conversation.

Pokemon Type: Normal/flying."

"How does that sound Kida," I whispered to her, "Should we add a bird Pokemon to our team?"

"Tana," Kida nodded her head, her ears bobbing along with her movements.

"Alright then," I smiled at her, "You choose, then go and nab it before they notice us and fly away."

Kida smiled in her cattish way before slinking off into the grass, the ruffs of cream fur about her paws making her move silently, and barely a rustle of the grass could be heard as she moved through it. I watched the bird Pokemon again, wondering which one was her target, and waited patiently for her to make her move.

A sudden rush of movement entered my vision as Kida, in an amazing feat, leapt into the air, and slammed into one of the many violet eyed Coraket, knocking it off the branch, and wrapping her paws around it, held onto it tightly as the two of them crashed down to earth.

Jumping to my feet, I ran over to the area of trees, as the rest of the bird Pokemon, spooked by Kida's sudden appearance, flew away, leaving a single Coraket behind. Kida held it pinned to the ground, growling at it, but didn't attack, merely waited for my further instruction.

"Awesome work Kida, this can be your fight," I told her, "Scratch it into submission."

Kida complied, and lifting a single paw from a wing she kept pinned to the ground, she scratched its chest several times successfully. But the Coraket would have none of this, and in one swift movement, it had knocked Kida across the head with its free wing, causing her to jump backwards with a yowl. Now free, it soared into the air, and cawed defiantly before relaxing into what I believed to be a taunting tone.

Kida scowled up at taunting Coraket, and without command, leapt up at it earnestly, snapping her teeth down on one of its tail feathers as it tried to swerve out of the way. Pulling the flailing Coraket down and she landed deftly on her feet, she began to shake her head voraciously, until the force of her attack caused the single feather to become dislodged, leaving the Coraket with only two tail feathers left.

Coraket sprung freely into the air with a tumble as its feather came free, and when it noticed what had happened, it was less than happy. With a screeching battle cry, it launched itself at an unsuspecting Kida, the feather still secure in her mouth, and crashed into her side with a shattering quick attack which sent her sprawling.

Staggering to her feet, Kida spat out the feather and with a battle cry of her own and slammed into the Coraket with her tackle attack. After that it became a flurry of quick attacks and tackles, each Pokemon trying to best the other.

"Kida, grab it and pin it again." I called out to her.

She surprised Coraket by grabbing one of its wings in her mouth just before it would have collided with her. It tried to counter this attack with Leer, but Kida wisely shut her eyes before the attack could take effect. Taking this turn of events to my advantage, I pulled out a spare pokeball and threw it at the trapped Coraket.

Striking Coraket on his flailing wing, the pokeball entombed the Coraket in its depths and shook with vigorous abandon. I waited, and nearly let out a whoop as the pokeball still, but my jubilant yell fell short as the two halves of the ball split apart and the Coraket escaped the capture device, then the pokeball closed again and Kida leapt away with a yowl of fright.

Before Kida or myself could react though, Coraket, seizing its chance, flew high into the sky, and away from sight. My face fell and a sad and defeated expression came across my face at the failed attempt and then the escape of the Pokemon I had tried to capture.

Sighing, I walked over to the pokeball and picking it up, slipped it back onto my belt to use another time, and as an after though, collected the feather Kida had torn from the Corakets tail as a souvenir from the battle.

"It was a nice try," I voice suddenly spoke up behind me.

I yelled in sudden fright and turned around to find my cobalt haired companion behind me, her dyed dark blue bangs hanging in her eyes. Wolf, her ever present bird of fire, was seated on her shoulder, looking at me in what seemed to be amusement. In her arms, she held a Fersies, much like my own, Polka.

"I see you caught a Pokemon though," I regained my composure and spoke to Sayunae.

"Yep, A Fersies like you have," Sayunae smiled at me, her violet eyes flashing with victory, "Her name's Araina."

"Nice," I commented as I walked over to where a dejected Kida was sitting, "Cheer up Kida, we'll catch the next Pokemon, I'm sure."

Kida looked up at me, and cheering up smiled in her cattish way, before she jumped deftly onto my shoulders and made herself comfortable, draping over both of them like a shawl.

"Did you actually catch any Pokemon?" questioned Sayunae curiously.

"Not in the least."

"Hmmm, Well, I caught Araina, and Jakura is different too."

This piqued my interest and I looked at her, "Jakura's different, How so?"

"He evolved," Sayunae smiled triumphantly and pulling a pokeball off her belt, she released said Pokemon.

Upon seeing the new Jakura, I concluded that while it was interesting how much different he looked to when he had been an Elervae, he was now going to be quite boring.

"What is he now?" I asked monotonously.

"An Ecorae," Sayunae answered, and then added a bit more information to my relief, "The pokedex said he should Evolve again in two to three weeks."

"Interesting. What does he evolve into?"

"A Dreiraen," was Sayunae's short reply.

"Do you even know what a Dreiraen is?"

"Not a clue."

I groaned at her, "Did you even think to check it up in your pokedex."

"Nope, I want it to be a surprise," Sayunae grinned at me, looking suddenly maniacal.

"Typical," I scoffed and with that I walked away.

Sayunae stood for a moment as I walked away, "HEY!" she yelled after me, and I heard her returning Jakura and Araina to their pokeballs before following me at a jog.

"Just what is that supposed to mean," she demanded once she had caught up.

"You know what it means," I replied, before continuing, "You never check things up, you always want things to be a surprise. If I'm correct, you haven't even checked up what Wolf will evolve into either."

"I like being surprised," Sayunae countered me, "So of course I haven't, but I bet you haven't either."

"Okay, so you have me there," I sighed at her, "But if I do want Kida to evolve, I will have to check up what she evolves into, seeing as how she could evolve into a number of different Pokemon."

"Guess so," Sayunae looked up at the sky for a bit before looking at me, "Kinda ruins the fun though, doesn't it."

I looked at her with a confused look at her odd logic, before understanding came to me and I smiled, "I guess it does."

'Why don't we head back to town, we've been out all morning, lets start heading for the next city."

"Might as well," I smiled at her and changing course, we headed for town.

TBC

Another chapter finished, after having writers block on it for a while. Now with a bit of a twist, the Journey from Larana's point of view, Sayunae was technically the main character, but gotta have Larana in there more me thinks.

The new Pokemon mentioned in this chapter are © by me. Do not use them without permission.

Pokemon is © by Nintendo.


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